


Forever Falling

by darkspine10



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Action/Adventure, Dipper goes by Mason, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Ghosts, Magic, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Outer Space, Parallel Universes, Science Fiction, Story Arc, Strained Relationships, World Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 21:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 40
Words: 281,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20627645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkspine10/pseuds/darkspine10
Summary: Pacifica Pines is visited every night by bad dreams. She sees glimpses of the past and echoes of the future.Mason Pines hasn't seen his sister in five years. His journals have been put away.Now they're both thrust back into a life they left behind. Spurred on, they must reforge broken bonds, and travel across this world and countless others...





	1. The Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> This fic acts as a loose follow-up to my previous works, The Mystery Teens season 1 and 2. Certain minor elements used in this story, such as Pacifica's journal or pendant, originated in those fics. Later on I have plans to reintroduce larger elements from those works, but I'll try for the most part make this story independent enough to function without having to read them. Anytime there's a big enough reference, I'll include enough expository material in the text to understand it fully.
> 
> Special thanks to Viva_Raine for beta reading. You can find her own published works here:  
https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viva_Raine

Standing alone in the cavernous space, the detail Pacifica noticed most was the deep throbbing hum emanating all around her. Like a heartbeat, the noise constantly rose and fell. On an instinctive level she felt soothed by the rhythm. The heartbeat of the universe, she thought.

Her face was lit by the pale white-blue glow coming from the far wall, the great portal rising high above the chamber. That gaping mouth of light, almost blinding within the triangular frame, was both terrifyingly unknown and strangely mesmerising. It was like there was a hunger there, to pierce the veil and see all that lay beyond this simple reality.

She couldn’t make out anything else in this place, it was just the captivating portal and pitch blackness beyond. Around the edge of the circular aperture lights began to flash on and off. Previously washed out by the overwhelming portal glow, now she could make out symbols lining the rim. There were ten shapes in total, simple geometric lines with a meaning she couldn’t comprehend.

One of the symbols began to outshine the rest, approaching the level of brightness of the portal itself. It was towards the bottom left of the wheel, and something about that new light felt inviting. The central solid glow from the portal began to darken slightly at the edges. Amorphous shapes resolved themselves gradually into clumps of green, forming familiar outlines. Slowly, the glow became a sea of brilliant blue against green land.

Pacifica was looking down at the Earth through the ring of symbols. It turned lazily, spinning round on its axis. As she watched, darkness began to creep in around the planet. It was drifting away, leaving it isolated against the pure black. Eventually, only a pinprick of blue remained, the entire world, everything she’d ever known, compressed to a single point of light.

The image exploded outwards in a sudden burst, with all colours of the rainbow blasting out. Where before the soft blue had been hypnotizingly calming, now she could hardly bare to look. The one illuminated symbol on the edge began to move, as the rim spun around the ever-shifting portal. Faster and faster the light spun, and the colours’ intensity grew as well. Bolts of lightning were cast off from the portal, then she felt her stomach drop as she lifted into the air.

She hovered for a moment, overcome by the glare, before suddenly everything vanished. The portal, the wheel of symbols, all simply disappeared. She was totally alone in the dark now but felt relieved to be out of that chaotic tableau of colour. She tried to cry out and found her voice had deserted her along with the light.

Her silence was answered by a whisper from out of the void. “Llama?” It was gone quickly, nothing more than a distant echo. “The new life must oust the old…” More whispers from that cryptic voice. “When gravity falls and the wheel will turn, beware the ones who wish to burn…”

The words were meaningless to her. Frustrated with her lack of voice, she tried once more to call out to the voice. Still nothing. “The gathered will walk the path, across Earth and beyond, until all are joined here in this place once again.”

Finally the darkness began to fade, and Pacifica saw a dark cave. A flaming torch lit the side of the rock wall, showing a primitive painting of the same symbols she’d been able to make out lining the portal before. Within the ring there was nothing, a blank space where she logically knew something should be. The wall groaned and began to crumble away behind the painting.

For an instant, a single eye daubed in green paint became visible at the centre point of the circle. Then the whole wall fell away, leaving her outside, standing on a high cliff. Waves lapped the rocks down below her ridge, which was covered in yellowing grass.

She wasn’t alone here. She turned to see a hooded figure looking down, towering above her at 8 feet tall. This woman observing her wasn’t human. The purple skin made that abundantly clear. Seven eyes narrowed on her face as she took in Pacifica. “At last, you can see.”

Then she was gone, and a flood of visions overcame her mind’s eye. Scenes of the portal once again flaring up. A small ship on the high seas. Whole galaxies in flame. Her and two others crossing the wide expanse of the world. And those ten symbols, naggingly familiar.

The Oracle spoke out one last time, pleading across the gap of time and space that separated them. “Remember! You must remember, Pacifica!”

Her eyes flickered open and she was thrust back into wakefulness. Breathing fast, she looked around, relieved to find herself back in her bed, a snoring figure under the duvet beside her. Everything was back to normal and alright.

For a brief moment she held the full knowledge of her dream, the mission she had to fulfil stamped in her mind. Then, like a leaf on the wind, the thought was gone, and she forgot. Blinking her eyes, she laid down and went back to another restless sleep.

* * *

The next morning heralded a normal day at work for Pacifica Pines. Making sure she was at the office bright and early, she took her time going over her latest presentation for the board. Her newest clients had a lot of demands, but none of them were particularly challenging. Merely a matter of following everything they asked for to the letter, drawing up the plans with no major deviations.

Life as an architect hadn’t been a role she’d ever expected to choose when she was younger. Her initial subject at college had been a generic art and design course, partly chosen just so she could watch her parents’ heads explode in confusion. But she’d shifted the focus of her studies partway through on discovering a passion for designing structures. It satisfied her desire to use her artistic skills to make a practical difference in the world, rather than simply making ‘pointless art’.

It wasn’t always such a noble job however, as this current project was proving. She’d been hired to design a new housing complex in Trenton, a blocky functional building. It was a far cry from envisioning a glittering New York tower or working on ‘the next big thing’ in architecture, and had a lot of strict requirements. The clients were expecting a new update on her designs at the end of the week. It was doable, certainly - she could bash off the designs practically in her sleep. But her passion for the work was feeling very low.

Still, she shouldn’t complain. It was a high-paying job, which helped support the lifestyle she’d been accustomed to since childhood. Her skills with finance management made corralling the clients easy. Her parents may have done many things in her life, not all of them good, but she was thankful now for their training through her youth, that gave her a solid business acumen. Were the commissions she was taking more stimulating it would have been a perfect job. 

At least, apart from the endless jokes people would make once they found out her husband’s name. Yes, an architect married a ‘Mason’, so funny, nominative determinism at its finest, yadda yadda yadda.

Finishing checking over her report once again, she rested her head in her palm. She picked up a pen and began idly doodling on the back of the report while she waited for the clients to arrive.

She’d dressed smartly, as always - a simple black suit and skirt, choosing only the finest fashion tastes in her wardrobe. Her long blonde hair strikingly stood out against the darker clothes. It was a simple look, showing her professionalism at a glance.

There was a certain lack of passion she felt in the outfit though, a sense that some more vibrant colours would improve her style. She didn’t care enough to shake things up though, lest she risk upsetting her carefully cultivated ‘look’.

Her one personal affectation was a simple silver pendant she wore around her neck. It was in the shape of a pine tree, an 18th birthday gift from Mason. She’d often found herself fiddling with the thing as a way of calming her nerves. Now instead she found more comfort in this random doodling.

She sighed. “Is this all there is?” she wondered. “Board meetings and presenting myself and endless tedious notes?” Life had been so much more interesting way back when. The things she’d used to get up to would likely scandalise most of the people she interacted with through work. Really, running around the woods and looking for magic adventures? It hardly seemed worth wasting time discussing, the very idea was preposterous.

And yet. Yearning for the past, Pacifica reminisced about her youth, those halcyon days on the West Coast, spending time with Mason and… well, those days were long past now.

Her intercom buzzed. “Mrs Pines, the board of directors are here to see you now.” Pacifica replied that she’d be there in a moment, then gathered up her documents. As she picked up the sheaves of paper, her eye caught on the small sketch she’d absent-mindedly drawn. 

A circle enclosed by an upside-down triangle. She squinted at the doodle as if in deep contemplation. Then, shaking her head, she filed out of the room and prepared herself to meet and greet with her financiers.

Life would have to wait until later.

* * *

Pacifica pulled up along the quiet wooded road to the Washington Crossing Observatory. By the time she’d finished work for the day the sun had set. She knew that at this hour she’d find her husband by the main telescope.

As she got out of her car, she looked up at the night sky. These summer months meant that the stars didn't come out til well into the night, necessitating late shifts. Despite this, she smiled and headed inside the modest observatory dome. Inside she was greeted by one of Mason’s colleagues, Rajesh, an eager work assistant currently toiling over mounds of scribbled paper. “Mrs Pines, how lovely to see you this evening. After Mace, I take it?”

“Up at the main scope is he, Raj?” Rajesh nodded, and she grinned at her husband’s predictability. The telescope dominated the central room of the small facility. The skylight aperture was split open and staring through the enormous telescope up the stars was Mason Pines.

Focused entirely on his work, Pacifica crept up on him, climbing the ladder to his perch. A barrage of tickles under his arms quickly caught his attention. “Ha! Pacifica! Fancy seeing you here.”

She made a serious expression. “I had a rough day. The usual boring stuff.” Then she broke into a grin and leapt into his arms. “But it’s all better now!”

She giggled and Mason pulled her up into a kiss, then sat her on his lap. She felt warm and content wrapped up in his arms. “Aw, those new clients getting you down again? I’m sure things will pick up soon Paz. For both of us.” Mason too hadn’t planned to come into Astronomy. While pursuing photography at college he’d taken an eye to astral mapping, imaging the various constellations up above. A fitting role for a man with a birthmark on his forehead in the shape of the Big Dipper. 

Pacifica sighed, feeling reluctant to talk about her insecurities. She’d always had trouble expressing her problems to others. “Aw, it’s nothing Mason. Just… I feel pretty aimless sometimes. Like I could be doing so much more.”

“Hey, it’s ok, you and I are stable right now, that’s what counts. This research project is a big coup, of course. If me and Raj can track the event… well, it could finally mean our big break.”

“Enough work talk, nerd, I need to unwind.” She smirked and bent over to the scope. “Tell me about them.”

Mason wheeled the telescope so it focused on a particular region of space. “If you look there, you’ll see that the moon is currently a Waxing Gibbous. Pretty clear look at the Mare Tranquillitatis.” She peered up, then he moved the giant apparatus again. “There you’ll see Jupiter, the moons are nice and clear tonight. And this,” he wheeled the scope one more time, “is our big break.”

Visible through the telescope was a vague orangey cloud, obscuring a cluster of stars. Mason’s current ‘project’. Following and tracking this astronomical event for the local university could give him a shot at grant money to fund further research and give the Pines a chance to hopefully escape their current humdrums. A chance at a more exciting life.

At the moment, Pacifica wasn’t too interested in whatever this unusual phenomenon moving across the sky was, so whispered into Mason’s ear. “Hmm, show me your fave, Mace.” He zoomed out of the close-up and panned the image across.

“There she is, Princess. The constellation of Andromeda. She’s still a beautiful as you are.”

Pacifica pulled away from the astronomical delights and looked into her husband’s eyes. “You always were such a romantic at heart. Good thing I’m a sucker for that stuff too.” They kissed again, but Pacifica giggled and pulled away. “So fuzzy. I still can’t believe you grew that.”

Mason’s hand went up to his hair-covered chin. “You’re still not happy with the beard? I thought it’d make me seem more ‘mature’.”

“It hides too much of your pretty face.” She kissed him again, feeling the messy hair covering the whole lower side of his face lightly tickle her cheeks.

Abruptly, Mason picked her up and started her carrying her away. “Come on, you need your mind taken off work. No late night at the observatory today. I think it’s time both of us went home together for once.”

She leant close and nuzzled his neck. “I’d like that, Ursus.” The couple enjoyed their private constellation nicknames. One of their first dates as teens had been a night of stargazing out in the desert. Further significance was derived from certain adventures they’d shared over a decade ago, back when their lives were so much different. “Let’s forget about everything else. There’s you, there’s me, and there’s nothing in our way.”

* * *

Mason woke up in a state of pure panic, hearing Pacifica scream out in fear beside him. He awkwardly got upright, throwing the duvet aside and flicking the light on to see his terrified wife. “Paz! Are you ok! Pacifica!”

She was shaking and breathing erratically. There was a fearful look in her eyes, but she found Mason’s arm and held on. “It was horrible Mason, everyone was dying. That awful laugh again, I couldn’t… and your sister was there too.”

Mason sighed. “Another nightmare? This can’t keep going on Pacifica, we have to talk about it properly.”

She pulled away from him and set her lips into a defiant line. “I’m fine Mason, trust me,” she said decisively. “I don’t need your help just cause I’m sleeping badly, I can cope.” On the sideboard next to the bed Pacifica found her journal, a pink book with a golden llama embossed on the cover. “I just need to unwind, it’s nothing.”

She’s started keeping the journal ten years before, essentially copying Mason’s passion for note-writing. She’d taken it as a challenge, to follow his inspiration and make a book that was just as detailed. She held the book close and began sketching again, anything to distract herself.

“How many times has this been now? This has been happening for weeks, I only wanna help. Why don’t you try describing what has you so spooked?”

“Don’t worry about me, it’s not important.” Pacifica was nothing if not stubborn. As she scribbled in the journal, she found herself almost unravelling the dream as her pencil moved across the page. “I saw your space thingy, that orange cloud. Only it was a different colour this time, more greenish. And moving. Then I was in your uncle Ford’s basement in the Mystery Shack. The portal was glowing like crazy.”

“Huh, that’s odd, you were never down there when it was in operation.”

Pacifica shook her head. “Like I said, it’s probably nothing. You’re always telling me to be rational. These are just bad dreams, that’s all. Just dreams.” She put down her pencil and set her book aside. “Goodnight Mason. Sleep well.”

“Night Paz. I love you.” He kissed her forehead and as he leant over he caught a glimpse of her open journal page. Every inch of the paper was covered in messy sketches. There were hundreds of drawings, all of them reflecting the same basic shape. An upside-down triangle surrounding a circle. He closed his eyes and sighed, then turned off the light.

* * *

Pacifica was redrafting her design, applying the requested changes to her sketch, when the call came in. She picked up the phone while not taking her attention of her work, continuing to sketch as she answered. “Hello, Pacifica Pines speaking, who is this?”

“Paz, it’s me! You need to come down here, right now!”

“Mason? Is that you?” There was a distinct hint of panic in her husband’s voice, but she tried to be professional. “You know I’m trying to pull an all-nighter, I need to finish these revisions. If you have something important to tell me it can wait 'til I’m home.”

She moved to put the phone down, but Mason called out again. “It’s about the dreams!”

She hesitated, her hand in mid-air. “Go on.”

“Get down to the observatory as fast as you can, there’s something I have to show you.”

She arrived to find Mason standing out in the cold waiting for her. He was pacing back and forth, but his worried expression softened slightly at seeing her. “You made it, great! Come inside.”

“What’s this all about? Did you really have to pull me away from work?” She crossed her arms and tapped a foot impatiently.

Mason began babbling wildly. “At first we thought it was nothing, just an error with the redshift or something. But then we calibrated everything, and it was definitely changing. Then it started acting completely unexpected, our readings are off the scale!”

She put a hand on his shoulder to try and calm his frantic diatribe. “Slow down Mace, back up. What’s actually going on?”

“It’ll be easier if you just see it.” He led her inside, past an exasperated Raj, who was hurrying about checking the instrumentation. In the main dome Mason gestured to the telescope. “Remember your dream last night, the one you told me about?”

“Uh, vaguely.” Pacifica tried to think back to the previous night, but most of her recollection was sketchy at best. “What’s that got to do with this?”

“Take a look.” Realising that he wasn’t going to explain more until she looked, Pacifica bent over and peered up the scope. “You told me last night that the cloud, our main observational target, had changed. Tell me what you see.”

Pacifica’s eye staring up at the sky widened. “It’s turned green! The cloud’s changed colour!” As she watched, the astronomical object drifted to the right, before leaving the scope’s view entirely.

“And it’s on the move, exactly like you said.”

Pacifica sat back in the main observatory chair, dumbfounded. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence, it was only a dream after all.” She was reaching and Mason knew it.

“Pacifica, when in our lives has anything been ‘just a coincidence’? Here’s the kicker though.” He grabbed a loose piece of paper, covered in calculations. “The velocity has started decreasing. We predict that the cloud will end up halting right in front of one specific constellation. Ursa Major.’

Pacifica’s hand found its way up to her neck, where she began fondling her pendant. Breathing deeply, she tried to take stock of the situation. “Ok. So you’re telling me that I ‘predicted’ some big spacey event? What could this even mean, is this cloud dangerous or something?”

Mason shook his head. “No no, it’s too far off for that. I think… I think it’s a message. Someone knows you’ve been having dreams of the future, so they’ve manipulated this to sends us a sign. Pacifica, your visions are _real_. We can’t ignore the implications of this. Please, you have to tell me what you’ve been seeing.”

“I don’t know!” She felt flustered, all of this had come upon her so suddenly. “I’ve been having crummy nights, that’s all. I don’t remember what I actually dream about most of the time!”

“You’ve been seeing the portal a lot though, haven’t you?”

“I don’t…”

“I’ve seen your journal, Paz! It’s stuck in your head. The only things you draw in there after a bad night are endless pictures of it!”

His harsh tone was getting to her, so she shot back “Oh yeah, and what am I supposed to do about that?! Sleeping pills didn’t work! And I told you, I can’t remember the details!”

He looked thoughtful for a moment, conscious of the fact he was upsetting her. “Then we’re just gonna have to tease them out.”

Mason lit the last candle around Pacifica’s body. She was laying down within the makeshift ‘wellfullness shrine’ he’d made. The waft of incense gave a very different aroma to their living room than usual. “Ok Pacifica, everything’s ready. Now lie back and try to empty your mind. That’s it, calm, gentle thoughts.”

She snapped up at him. “I don’t need a lullaby Mace, just shut up and let me concentrate.”

“Sorry, I’ll be quiet. Sure has been years since I had to apply these kinds of techniques.” Mason had been taught various effective methods of clearing one’s mind by his Great Uncle Stanford, ranging from Buddhist meditation to simple mental counting tricks. This current plan he was effecting would hopefully allow Pacifica to enter a very shallow dream state - hopefully shallow enough for her to relay something of what she’d witness.

Pacifica’s breathing began to noticeably slow, so Mason decided to prod her slightly. Whispering softly into her ear, he tried to disturb her trance as little as possible. “Tell me Princess. What do you see?”

“I see… lots of things. The triangle and circle again – the portal. Always glowing so brightly.”

“Good, that’s a start. Is there anything more substantial, a clear image perhaps?”

“I see seven eyes, watching over me and you. Several different symbols coming together.” Her face began to scrunch up. “Always the burning. There’s a pressure on my mind from beyond. I see us drifting through the cosmos, all three of us.”

Mason raised an eyebrow. “Three?”

“And I think it’s coming soon. Ah!” She cried out, but her eyes remained closed. “We have to… have to go there! Break through! Reopen the bridge- nyahh!”

“Pacifica! Are you alright? Paz!” He pressed his palm to her forehead, hoping to soothe her.

“The other side, ugh, we must travel, so far. Together, eeyahh!” Her body began convulsing.

“Pacifica!” Mason tried to hold her down, to stop her injuring herself.

“dqidixj ejusiz ptifygikl!” She spouted off the hissed chant then collapsed back. Her eyes burst open. She reached out and took Mason’s hand, gripping tightly. “I saw what we need to do! I saw! We have to go through the portal.”

Mason helped rest her head back down. He looked away. “I was afraid you were gonna say something like that.”

* * *

Still struggling to accept what she’d seen, Pacifica sat awkwardly while Mason paced around the room. After so long, could they accept being dragged back into their old lives, the kind they’d moved on from? Needing time to think, she got up, occupying herself by mindlessly walking around their spacious home.

They’d bought the house expecting that they’d someday need the extra space. Things hadn’t panned out that way. Now all the unused rooms just made Pacifica feel uneasy. It didn’t help that she had a stigma towards large houses, after her strictly enforced childhood in her parent’s mansion. She lingered for a moment in one room, not choosing to turn on the light switch and remind herself of its originally intended purpose.

“Hey, it won’t do us any good to dwell on that stuff.” Mason had come up behind her. She let herself be pulled into a hug from behind. ”We should talk about the present, right?”

She sadly closed the door and looked up at her husband. “Yeah, that’d probably be a good idea.”

He led them into their bedroom, then shut the door. No distractions from the matter at hand. “Ok, so, starting out. Even if we believe in your ‘visions’, which you thought were pretty vague anyway, and which we don’t even know why you’re having them, even if we accept all of that, we still have no idea where to even begin with making a…” He swallowed. “A portal.”

“Is it really so hard? Your uncle built his portal nearly 45 years ago, surely the technology we have now could make it a lot easier. I’m pretty good at drawing technical schematics, you have a pretty broad knowledge of physics. Or, if not the two of us, maybe we could reach out to people, proper scientists.”

“You’d really trust anyone to believe the story we tell them? That we want to reconstruct a hole in space and time because of nothing more than a dream? If I hadn’t seen the portal myself I’d think it was a load of bullshit!” He sighed, trying not to get riled up. “Look, we don’t even have the original plans anymore, all of Ford’s research is gone. We tossed it away in 2012, without that we have no leg to stand on.”

He felt Pacifica’s hand on his arm. “Mason, I know you don’t want to blindly leap into anything based on so little. Dreams have never exactly been very trustworthy in the past, for either of us. We still have scars.” Mason knew what she was talking about. He’d occasionally had nightmares regarding the terrible things he’d seen in his youth, even years after the events. Multiple times he’d woken up in a sweat, thinking it had all come back to haunt him.

Pacifica looked into his hazel eyes. “But trust me when I tell you that I _believe_ in this vision. We have to figure out what’s going on with the portal, or else bad things are going to happen. I’m not gonna just sit by and let this continue. We have to fix things. There must be something you can think of?”

She looked at his face, trying to discern his thoughts as he stared back at her. Slowly, his face broke into a small grin. “Well, if we’re really going to do this, I know where we’ll need to start.”

The study in their home was rarely used anymore. Pacifica did most of her work at the office and Mason could hardly be expected to track the movements of the stars from here. On one of the bookcases was a locked glass case. It was mostly filled with old legal documents, contracts from Pacifica’s job, university correspondence.

But at the back of the case were three leather-bound volumes. Pacifica removed her pine tree pendant and passed it to Mason. It slid smoothly into the lock and he pulled the case open. Mason never could resist little games like that, puzzle locks and clever ways to keep his property safe. As Pacifica put her necklace back on, Mason retrieved the three books and placed them out on the desk.

The books were dark blue, with a golden pine tree at the centre of the cover. Each one had a number written in black ink prominently displayed. “Gotta start somewhere. Man, it’s been so long since I…” He placed a palm on the third book along, which had a number six on the front. These books meant so much to him, and to Pacifica too.

The journals.

Journals 4, 5 and 6, to be precise, the ones Mason himself had authored. The first two books were completely full of notes, while Journal 6 was only half finished, left in that state when Mason had chosen to stop pursuing the hobby. Of course, he still kept a modest notebook, it was handy to be able to write down stray thoughts. But it couldn’t compare to the thrill he felt looking down at these books.

Pacifica knew the turmoil he was feeling. That undeniable desire to open the cover once more but held back by the trepidation of upsetting the cosy world they’d built. Inside the pages were chronicles of countless days of their lives, adventures and experience so bizarre and thrilling that nobody would ever believe them.

This was the moment when she’d find out if Mason was committed to this new mission. It was his last chance to turn away and forget the meaning of the dreams. 

He opened Journal 6 and turned the last page he’d filled in, nearly five years ago. There was no going back now. 

It was a relatively mundane entry by the standards of the journals. Mason read from the page. “_July 15th, 2022: We’re beginning to settle into the new house. Trenton is a nice city to make a new start, even if it is a far cry from the more exciting places where I’d once envisioned us living. But here Pacifica and I can settle down and begin to focus on…_ hmm.” 

He skipped over a section he wasn’t interested in dredging up, then continued. “_I don’t know when I’ll next have the drive to pen an entry. New Jersey isn’t exactly known for its deep-seated mysteries. I’ll have to be satisfied with a peaceful existence for now. What more could I ask for, with the woman I love by my side and our future waiting for us._”

Mason closed the cover. “Hmm, that’s kind of a sad note to end on. We never did ‘keep the flame burning’. Hunting for mysteries always seemed like something we couldn’t get around to, always had other stuff in the way.”

Pacifica took the book from him. There was a determined look in her eyes now which hadn’t been there before. “I guess it’s about time we made up for all those blank pages then.”

Their tentative plans weren’t much. A list of components they’d probably need if they were going to build a portal. Ideas for equipment they’d require if they ever wanted to survive out there in the multiverse if they really did go through with all of this. A record of as much of Ford’s research they had copies of (Mason still had some yellowing photocopies from the original Journal 3).

It was barely an outline of a plan. They had little to go on, even when combining Mason’s journals with Pacifica’s Llama book. Mason was still pondering the issues, trying to come up with ways he could possibly leverage university funding to siphon off a little for their needs.

Pacifica knew it wasn’t going to be enough. They needed more than the scraps of information they’d assembled here. They needed practical knowledge and experience of the mysteries of the world. Someone to be their guide as they figured out what to do next.

Which led her to the only person she could think of who could help them. “Mason, have you thought about contacting someone else to help us out? Sure, we can’t just call up your uncle anymore, I know that’s off the table, but we don’t have to do this alone.”

“Yeah, but who locally is gonna be able to help us? They don’t know anything about this stuff.” He gestured down at Journal 6. “This’d even go over Raj’s head, and he’s a whizz at most physics.”

“I meant more… someone from our past… I was thinking West Coast.”

“Who, mom and dad? Someone we knew from school?”

She rolled her eyes. “You know, for someone so smart it’s aggravating how dumb you can be sometimes, Mace.” He cocked his head to the side, clearly not understanding what she was getting at. This would require a gentle touch. “Who’s the one person who understands _this_ better than anyone else? Who we can trust implicitly to support us? Your names start with the same letter and you share a last name, come on, it’s not hard.”

He started shaking his head. “No, oh no! You can’t be serious! We can’t go to _her_!”

“Who else can we go to then? We have to contact her, we have to go and talk to… to Mabel.”

“No! Out of the question. If we do that, then things can never go back to the way they are now. We chose to separate from Mabel for our own sakes. So that we could keep our careers and family secure.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t miss her every day though.” She glared at him, in a way he recognised from all the years of knowing Pacifica that meant she wouldn’t tolerate any flippancy or deflection.

Through gritted teeth, he responded. “You know I do. Of course I miss her. But it was her choices that drove us apart, not mine!”

“It’s been five years, maybe things are different now?”

“You know Mabel, do you really believe that? Ugh, this is a terrible idea.”

She put her hand on his cheek. “But it’s the right idea, and you know it.”

He turned to look at her, knowing that he’d already lost this debate. “Fine. We’ll talk to her. We’ll see if she’s willing to help. Don’t say I didn’t warn you that this is a bad move.”

“I won’t.” She adopted an air of seriousness. This was important, they had to do it right. “Now come on, we’ve got to pack. It’s a long journey to Seattle.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is my vague outline for the timeline of this fic, and where the story will be going:
> 
> Chaps 1-4: Set-up and introductions
> 
> Chaps 5-8: The World tour begins
> 
> Chaps 9-18: Across the World
> 
> Chaps 19-27: Discoveries, Answers, and Joining Together
> 
> Chaps 28-40: Into the Multiverse
> 
> These chapter numbers are currently estimates, only the first 11 chapters have been written in full so far. It may be necessary to split certain chapters in two if they get long enough.
> 
> The brief bit of gibberish that Pacifica says after the dream therapy is encoded via Caesar Cipher, using the key 'Jheselbraum' and then reversed.
> 
> Any feedback on this opening would be appreciated :)


	2. The City

So, driven by nothing by vague visions and with no clear goal in mind, Mason and Pacifica set out to cross America in search of Mabel Pines. The two packed lightly, not knowing what, if anything, they’d need in the near-future. Pacifica packed her Llama journal, which she brought on most long trips away anyway, while Mason made sure he packed Journal 6 for the first time in years, as well 4 and 5 just in case. He wore little, just a simple black t-shirt and jeans, not preparing for anything specific.

Pacifica was glad to be out of her formal work clothes, able to hang loose for once. She wore a dark purple flannel shirt and jean-shorts, one of the few outfits she owned that linked back to her roots in the forests of Oregon. A pair of sensible hiking boots completed the look – no risk of tripping on a pair of heels in a high-intensity situation, she’d learnt that much practical advice from Mason’s trips out into the woods in her youth.

Pacifica always hated lengthy car journeys - too much empty space with nothing to fill it - so spent the drive trying to find ways of distracting herself looking out the window. Mason on the other hand had spent many long times travelling in his childhood. Whether it was the long bus rides to Gravity Falls, or simply driving around looking for mysteries, he was well used to enduring these kinds of trips. He found himself falling into the usual driving state, paying half attention on his surroundings, while the other half was free to think unhindered. It was a mental state he found to be one of his most fruitful, and he barely got fatigued from such long drives anymore.

Most of the other cars on the highway were the new automated models, driverless cars having taken off in a big way these last few years. Mason was still happy with his older car, he didn’t trust a vehicle he couldn’t 100% control himself and having the ability to go off road was a requirement for the sorts of activities he used to get up to. Even if he was slightly embarrassed that the car was a small pink Mini.

The couple alternated driving the course across the country, stopping at the end of each day in whatever roadside motels they could find. Several days into the journey they began to approach Washington state. They’d already basically abandoned their careers for this mad plan. Pacifica had put her clients on an indefinite hold, while Mason had offloaded most of his work to his assistant Rajesh to handle in his absence.

Neither husband nor wife spoke much during the journey. Had this been a pleasure jaunt, no doubt they’d have found ways to keep morale up. But with the serious nature of the drive they didn’t have the enthusiasm for such frivolity. Pacifica mulled over her dreams, and Mason tried to ignore thoughts of the past.

Finally they reached Seattle, the city Mabel was apparently calling home these days. Even though they’d been apart for years, Mabel still sent letters when she could. The couple had received a number of the years, none of which had been opened or read. Each one held her living arrangements, she sent one to Mason whenever she moved in case of dire emergencies. He hoped that this qualified - he’d find out soon enough.

Soon enough turned out to be longer than he’d expected, as the city’s roads were interminably gridlocked. Traffic crawled to a standstill for no reason that the Pines could notice. After days of travel, to be slowed down at the last hurdle was agonising.

Nearing Mabel’s address, Pacifica finally asked the question she’d been waiting for the entire drive to ask. “So. Any ideas what you’re going to say to her?”

Mason stared out at the halted traffic for a moment without replying. “I’m still working on it. Five whole years it’s been.”

“She’s still your sister, I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you.”

“Yeah. I hope.” There was very little hope in his tone though.

* * *

Mabel’s address turned out to be a grubby apartment complex, far from the highlights of the city. Mason and Pacifica climbed three floors to find her door. Mason held his hand out to knock, but hesitated. He tried to pep himself up for the confrontation. “Come on Mace, you can do this. Have confidence. It’s only your estranged sister, she won’t bite.”

“Sure about that?” Pacifica said with a smirk. “This _is_ Mabel we’re talking about.” Tired of his indecision, she politely rapped three times on the door. Mason tensed, hearing a fumbling from inside as someone moved to the open the door.

To both their surprise, it wasn’t Mabel who answered them. Standing in the open doorway was a slender black man in a loose sweatshirt, his hair in a buzzcut. Momentarily, nobody knew how to react. The stranger studied the people on his doorstep, then slowly his eyes widened. ”Pines…? _Mason_ Pines? It is you!”

Mason too gasped in recognition. “Eli!? Eli Corazón, from Piedmont High? Woah, that’s a blast from the past. You remember him, Paz?”

In her late teens, Pacifica had spent some time living in Piedmont with the twins after a major falling out with her parents. During that time she’d briefly enrolled at their high school and had got to know a few of their friends.

Eli excitedly pointed at Pacifica. “And you… Pamela!” 

Pacifica definitely remembered Eli. “Wrong again, nerd boy,” she said, stone-faced. “We haven’t seen you since 11th Grade prom. If I remember right you acted like a lovestruck puppy around Mabel all evening.”

“Oh that’s right, of course! You must be here to see May! Wondered why you were here.” He slapped his forehead. That was how Mason remembered Eli, always spaced out and never quite focused on the present moment.

Mason nodded and continued. “So what, are you, like, her boyfriend now?”

“Not exactly. She and I, it’s more complicated than that… you ever heard the term friends with benefits before?”

“No. What does it mean?” Pacifica said, honestly clueless.

Mason blushed and promised to explain later. “So, Eli, where can we find my sister?

“You haven’t seen all the posters? I’m pretty sure it was on the news too.” The couple shared a worried glance.

Pacifica glared at Mabel’s ‘houseguest’ sternly. “Alright _heartbreaker_, tell us where she is right now. We have something very important to share with her.”

* * *

City Hall Park was heaving with people. Every available avenue into the square was blocked by the crowds, explaining the slow traffic they’d seen on the way into the city. The small park was packed with tents on every available scrap of grass. The couple tried to slip through the baying masses discreetly, but the gathered people were here with a mission. Many hefted wooden signs, calling for boycotts or carrying political slogans.

Most of the protestors had the look of a grunge music festival, wearing colourful bandanas. A small group of police officers lined the courthouse steps, keeping an eye on things so the event didn’t get out of hand. It was as if a small slice of 60’s counterculture had landed slap bang in the middle of the present day.

Some of the protestors were chanting, a repetitive slogan. “Re-Gen Corp, get with the times! We believe in May Pines!”

“Figures your sister would be right at the middle of all this.” Pacifica smiled, hoping to raise Mason’s spirits, but he was simply staring at the largest tent set up in the centre of the park.

“She hasn’t changed, it’s still all about this same naïve dream. I thought maybe now she’s older it would’ve tempered her a bit. But no, she still hasn’t grown up.”

Pacifica could see his frustration and was saddened that he clearly hadn’t softened his opinion on the matter either. The shift that had led to Mason’s decision to part ways with his sister hadn’t started five years ago, that had merely been the breaking point. Before then she’d been starting to rile things up for years, drawing inflammatory political cartoons in art college, speaking out against corrupt businesses, going around being a public nuisance. It had simply reached the point where Mason wanted to keep himself and Pacifica out of any negative limelight.

He’d packed up, travelled to the other side of the country, and cut all ties with his sister. Mabel had agreed to his course of action, not without regret. But she didn’t want to get in the way of their future. Pacifica just hoped that she still felt as graceful towards them after so long with zero contact. She clearly hadn’t changed her stance on much in the intervening time.

Reaching the large central tent, Mason pushed through the flap to the interior. It was quiet inside, the tent material blocking out most of the sounds of the noisy crowd. The tent was tightly packed, with paraphernalia, more signs, cans of spray paint, and colourful rugs hung out on the walls. Spangly sitar music wafted in from somewhere. Pacifica couldn’t help but notice a small bong lying in the corner, smoke still wafting up gently from a recent use.

Small wooden totems, like a shrine, were focused around a serene central figure, sitting bare-foot and cross-legged in the middle of the tent. It was like she was meditating in a kind of yoga pose.

She was wearing a green tank top and a frilly pink tutu. Beaded necklaces hung all over her, as well as glow-stick bracelets and bangles. The familiar tattoos up both arms, that Mason and Pacifica both recognised, relics from a teen phase, had been supplemented with face-paint of a bright red heart on one cheek. Her nut brown hair, now in a pixie cut, was crisscrossed with numerous bright streaks of dye in a spectrum of colours. On her wrist she wore a rainbow coloured plastic slinky, which would have looked bizarre on anyone else.

This was unmistakeably Mabel Pines. Suddenly noticing their approach, her eyes shot open, revealing bright red irises. Mason wasn’t sure how she’d react to seeing the pair of them. But when she recognised him, her face broke into a wide toothy grin. “Dipper?!” Mason’s old nickname abruptly broke the silence of the tent. “Ohmygosh, ohmygosh! This is so cool!” She was obviously overjoyed to see her brother again after so long.

“And Paz-Paz too!” Pacifica weakly waved back at her excited friend. Before either of the couple could say anything, Mabel had pulled them into a bear hug. “I can’t believe you’re here, it’s been like forever! What are you doing in Seattle?”

Mason broke from the hug and tried to think of what to say. “Uh, we’re kinda here to see you.” He raised an eyebrow. “What did you think, we were just off to visit the space needle?”

“Ha, it’s good to see you too Bro-Bro! You’ve gotta tell me all about what you’ve been up to. Come on, sit on my prayer rug.”

Pacifica declined to sit, but Mason shrugged and sat down beside his sister. “There’s not that much to tell about us really. We have decent jobs, normal lives. It’s not particularly interesting.”

“And what’s that caterpillar living under your schnozz all about?” Mabel teased, pointing to Mason’s new beard. He chuckled too, noting that both his sister and wife preferred him clean shaven.

“So, _May_,” Pacifica asked, “What are you doing out here in the park? Some big statement against the government?”

Mabel nodded. “Oh yeah, classic guerrilla tactics. My activists are camping out here until the city rescinds all funding to the Re-Gen Corporation, they’re a terrible company. Unethical genetic research, corruption, the works! We’re also providing a small commune for the homeless, tents and bedrolls, plus a couple of fellas set up a soup kitchen.”

“You really think all this will change anyone’s minds?”

Mabel was about to happily answer, but Mason scoffed. “Yeah right, like they’re gonna care about a bunch of hippies disrupting traffic.”

Mabel frowned. “It’s legitimate tactics, how else are we gonna get people to sit up and notice us? But look, that doesn’t matter now, I’m just glad you’ve finally decided to come and visit.” She smiled again, with a more thoughtful look. “We can finally start to mend the rift.” Mason’s eyes looked away. “I mean, that’s why you guys came, right? To try and fix things between us? Right?”

Mason looked into Mabel’s eyes seriously. Mabel’s vision had started deteriorating at 17, and she’d been blind as a bat for the last few years. Looking into her striking red eyes, he saw that she’d finally overcome her aversion to contact lenses in the intervening time since they’d last met. Those piercing scarlet eyes made it clear that Mabel would always stand out, always unafraid to find new ways to look bold and memorable to everyone she met.

He slowly tried to explain. “We’ve come… because we need your help. See, Pacifica’s been having these awful dreams for months now, and there was this event in space I was tracking. You know what our lives can be like, it was all too cryptically prophetic. At first I thought it was nothing, except Pacifica kept drawing these scribbles…” He rambled on, but Pacifica watched Mabel’s reaction. With every word her expression visibly soured, until her lip was straight, and her eyes stared off into the distance. Mason had lost her already. “…then I tried some dream therapy, that was useful in-“

“So you didn’t actually come here because of me?” Mabel cut her brother short. “You just want my help fixing this problem of yours?”

Mason nodded and smiled, thinking he’d got through to her. “Yeah, exactly, you’re the perfect person for this kind of job! We were hoping you could give us some guidance.”

Pacifica softly spoke, trying to defuse the obvious tension that Mason was somehow oblivious too. “Mabel, we wouldn’t have come if we didn’t think it was of the utmost importance.”

“No no, I see how it is. The only time you want to see me is when I’m ‘useful’, otherwise I might as well not exist, is that it? Huh? Portals and magic visions, that’s all well and fine. But what about me?!”

Mason saw that things weren’t going his way. “You’ve got the skills we need to solve this mystery. I thought you’d be happy that we wanted to work together again?”

“Ugh, it’s not like that Mason! I don’t want to be ‘partners’, I want my brother back!” She sighed, trying to calm herself down. “Let’s talk about this back at my place.”

* * *

“Mi casa, su casa. Make yourselves at home.” Mabel turned the key and showed the couple in. Eli was visible, napping on a sofa and snoring lightly. Mabel went over and nudged him, jerking him awake. “Rise and shine babe, we’ve got visitors.” He groggily noticed Mason and Pacifica and awkwardly waved.

Mason filed in, taking stock of the room. The apartment within was one large sitting room and kitchen area combined. A table in front of the sofa was covered in old Chinese takeaway boxes, while pots and pans cluttered the sink. There was an odd smell he pinned as probably being some type of exotic drug Mabel smoked, though he was far from being an expert in that.

Looking over the whole place, there was the sense that it was if she’d never passed out of that ‘first-year student’ phase of keeping things tidy, letting things pile up to the point where it was just on the edge of bearable.

As Pacifica stepped in behind him, she recoiled instantly as something slithered past her boot. It hissed up at her menacingly. “Ah! Mabel, why do you have a giant _snake_ living here?!”

Mabel waved her off. “Oh, don’t mind Apep, she won’t bite. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.” She picked up the 10 foot long snake in her arms. “Wouldn’t you Apep, you big softy.” The snake lazily hissed, then slipped out to explore the apartment some more.

Pacifica walked past her, shaking her head. “Whatever, at least she’s better than that blasted pig.”

Mabel went over to the kitchen and started rifling through her cupboards. She tried a few carboard boxes, finding them empty. “Musta been a long journey here. You two want anything to drink, I have tea, coffee?” The couple shook their heads. They weren’t about to risk anything offered from her dingy kitchen. Mabel shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She poured herself a bowl of multi-coloured cereal and started eating it dry. 

Plopping herself down heavily on her sofa, she stuck her legs up on the coffee table and hunted for the tv remote. Eli stood in the corner quietly, feeling out of place in this family drama. Mabel found a news channel and put it on in the background. “So. Mr and Mrs Pines. Start from the beginning. Tell me why you’re here in full, and I might just consider what you have to say.”

They began recounting the scant information they’d figured out from Pacifica’s portents of the future. That some vague threat was coming, that they’d possibly need to rebuild the portal. Beyond that, they had no clue, which was they’d come seeking Mabel’s advice. As experienced adventurers went, Mabel was second to none.

Mabel only paid half attention to their tale, content to focus on munching her cereal. Once their story was finished, she put down the bowl.

“I seriously thought the next time I’d hear from you, it would be when you two had a kid or something monumental like that.” The couple shared a pointed glance and said nothing, but Mabel didn’t notice their unusual silence on the matter. “Five years. That’s how long it took. And even now, you’re not here for me, not really. It seems there’s a big mystery, pretty major stuff. But I’m afraid I’ve got more important things going on. Speaking of which.” 

Mabel turned the tv volume up. A news jingle began playing, signalling an important bulletin. A female reporter sat behind a desk started speaking. “_Breaking news, live from Seattle: Re-Gen Corp announces several ground-breaking new deals in the field of gene therapy. Organic tissue samples have been synthesised for the first time in their Seattle based laboratory. This breakthrough marks a new landmark event in the study of stem cell research. In related news, May Pines’ protest at City Hall park has continued for its 15th day._”

Mabel excitedly pointed at the screen. “Ooh, ooh, this bit’s about me!” The couple paid attention to the screen, hoping to fill themselves in on exactly what Mabel had been up to since they’d last met.

“_The notorious activist has been campaigning for a more open research policy from Re-Gen, as well as public disclosure of all classified finance dealings. Her protest, now 400 people strong, has been ongoing for the last fortnight._”

A new title showed up on the news report, with the words ‘**May Pines: Public Menace?**’ in bold text. An image flashed on the screen labelled ‘File Photo’. It showed a clearly drunk Mabel surrounded by numerous other people, all of whom were stark naked and mostly blurred out for decency reasons. “That’s taken out of context,” Mabel mumbled.

Mason and Pacifica boggled at how casual Mabel was being. The newscaster started giving a rundown of her various activities over the years. “_Pines is believed to affiliated with numerous dubious groups, such as the California Pride Liberators and the Hombres Caiman. One of her first actions was chaining herself to a battleship in protest of the first Pacific Oil War in 2021._” Footage of Mabel showed her getting dragged off a pier into the water, as the ship carried on unimpeded. The couple actually recalled this event, it had been a few months before their wedding. At the time it had just seemed like ‘Classic Mabel’, always getting herself into goofy trouble.

But her campaigning hadn’t stopped there. The news continued to outline the many acts of corporate espionage, or grassroots movements she’d been involved in. To the surprise of both of them, it even showed that Mabel had been active across the world, staging protests in China, Brazil, Egypt, as well as numerous events all over the US. She’d been very busy, making a name for herself as the number one political agitator. The report ended, and the news carried on to a story about sports.

Mabel set down her cereal and crossed her arms. “So. Can you convince me that what you want me to do is more important than my protests? Otherwise I have things to see, people to do. Me’n my ‘fuckbuddy’ over here can get back to business.” Eli started blushing at Mabel’s indiscretion.

Her words seemed to have the desired affect though, as Mason looked like he was about to blow his top. Flabbergasted, he could barely contain his frustration. “I can’t believe this! Mabel, we’re talking about a possible Weirdmageddon level threat, and you’re just sitting around doing nothing!”

“So? What good’s saving the world from ending if the world isn’t worth living in already? I’m over here trying to make it a better place.”

“By complaining about people just doing their job? Who are pushing the frontiers of science, I might add?”

“You mean Re-Gen? Mason, they’re terrible! They experiment on animals all the time, sheep and pigs who don’t deserve that. They have no safety standards whatsoever, and I’m convinced they’re bribing the mayor to cover up the state of their facility in the city. They’re nothing like a good, ethical company such as Chiu-tech. If you haven’t got Chiu-tech phones you should look into that, they’re very ecologically sound.”

She rattled off that last note like she was doing them a public service. The tone of voice wasn’t meant to be patronising, but it just set off Mason even more. “Ugh, you and your dumb political nonsense! You’ve got all these impressionable kids following you around in your flock, you’re like a freaking cult leader!” 

Mabel ignored him and picked up a guitar from the corner. She didn’t even look at her brother as she started to pluck at the strings. The guitar was clearly untuned, producing a series of disharmonious twangs. Mason got in her face and started yelling. “Mabel! This isn’t a joke, look at me! Mabel!”

Before he could launch into yet another rant, Pacifica put her hand on his shoulder. “Mason, let me try.” He looked at her for a second, before lightly nodding, not demurring to his wife’s judgement.

While Mason simmered over by the kitchen, and Mabel apathetically stared at the tv, Pacifica tried to bridge the gap. She could see both sides. Mabel had always been possessed of a charming optimism about the world. She wanted things to always be fair and good for everyone. So when the real world disappointed her, instead of accepting the way things were, Mabel would try and do everything in her power to change things for the better. It could be considered naïve, a childish clinging to an unattainable utopian goal. But she never backed down from her convictions that things could be better if people just wanted it hard enough. 

Mason was far too cynical to believe in that worldview though. After all the terrifying nightmarish stuff he’d gone through in Gravity Falls as a kid, he was wary of ever trying to believe that change could come so simply. Such plans as that had backfired immensely for his uncle Ford, after all. ‘Trust no one’ was a concept he’d been hesitant to shake over the years.

And there was also Eli, who was still standing around gormlessly in the corner, somehow making the whole situation ten times more awkward just by being here.

Pacifica sat down on the sofa by her old friend, not saying anything yet. She leant over, looking at her casually. As she thought, Mabel still had a certain golden tattoo displayed prominently on her arm. It was in the shape of a pine tree. Much like the silver pendant she wore, it was a sign that linked the three of them together.

Mason had also quietly acquired a reciprocal object to represent his sister. Back home in Trenton he had a small wooden charm, a ball with a dot in the centre. It was the shape of the astronomical sign for the sun. The brightest star he knew, just like his Shooting Star of a sister.

Pacifica knew what she needed to do. She called over to Mason. “Hey, dork, you still got the book on you?” She watched him reach into his backpack and retrieved the dark blue Journal 6. He passed it to Pacifica, who laid it out on her lap for Mabel to see. “Bet you never thought you’d see this again.”

Mabel saw the cover, then looked away intentionally. A small grin broke out on Pacifica’s face when she saw that Mabel couldn’t resist stealing glances down at the journal. “We’re serious May, we want to start things off just like they were before. You, me, and Mason, filling this book in.” She turned to the last filled in page. The one overleaf was a promise the three of them could still keep. “I think these dreams I’ve been having are significant as well. Like, I can’t shake the feeling that this is something big. You’ve seen how real and dangerous dreams can be.”

Mabel took the book off Pacifica and closed it. Intently studying the cover, Pacifica waited for a reaction. Mabel stood up and gave the book back to her brother. “One last time, then we’re square, ok?”

Mason nodded. “Sure Mabel, whatever you want. You help us, then me and Paz won’t interfere ever again. If that’s the way you want it to go.”

“Alright. I’ll come with you.” She held her hand out. Mason smiled and was about to shake it. “If-“ Mabel raised her hand. “I’ll come with you, _if_ you’ll help me out with one small task first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The small initial idea for this chapter, of Paz and Dipper visiting Mabel in Seattle, was one of the earliest ideas I came up with for this fic, predating the entirety of The Mystery Teens 2 in fact. At the time (around March/April), I considered making MT2 much more separate than the first season, potentially using a bigger time skip. In the end, Season 2 was set much closer to the end of Season 1, thus the ‘Mabel in Seattle’ idea was pushed back for this story to use.
> 
> Pacifica’s ‘default outfit’ was based on this art by TurquoiseGirl35: https://www.deviantart.com/turquoisegirl35/art/In-the-woods-807002739
> 
> Eli was actually a character I first introduced in my previous long fic, The Mystery Teens 2: Seasons of Change. He was a minor side character, appearing or being referenced in a couple of chapters in the second half of that story. For this chapter, I’d always planned the ‘Mason and Pacifica meet Mabel’s roommate’ section as part of the structure. So when it came time to plan it out in full, I decided to reuse an existing character I’d already setup as being close to Mabel.


	3. The Rebel

The Re-Gen Corp facility in Seattle was made up of a pair of modern towers. One tower was nestled in amongst taller skyscrapers, while the other shorter tower had a parking area and was more open. A narrow window-lined bridge halfway up connected the two, and was the only way into the taller tower. A busy road ran between the towers, traffic flowing much faster now that the impromptu gathering in City Hall park had partly dispersed.

A bright pink Mini pulled into the parking lot of the facility and three people got out to examine the buildings. “Here we are. Time for the infiltration.” Mabel had been studying the layout of the buildings for a few weeks now, preparing for a chance to sneak in. After deciding on this course of action, she’d sent a message to her followers, letting them know she was moving on from the protest. Most started heading away, back home or to other causes, with only a few diehards staying to campaign. Now she’d dragged Mason and Pacifica out here to join in on a clandestine mission.

“You’re really just gonna break into a high-security research base?” Pacifica looked doubtfully at the buildings. At least Mabel had thought to wait for the cover of night before staging this little operation.

Mason grumbled. “Let’s just get this over with. I don’t like any of this, one bit.” He started striding towards the entrance, but Mabel held her hand out.

“Not you. You’re the getaway driver.”

“But I-“

“No buts. Get your ass in the car and circle round. You can meet us when we’re done. I only need Pacifica for this.” Mason looked like he wanted to argue but did as she asked anyway.

He called out to Pacifica before driving off. “Good luck Paz. Don’t do anything too reckless in there. Just do it cleanly, in and out.”

Pacifica nodded and watched him leave. Then she focused on Mabel, who was glancing up and down the small tower. “So, what’s the plan? What is it you actually want to do in there?”

“I have this.” She waved a miniature camera. “I want evidence of every shady thing that goes on in there. Should be a records room adjacent to the main laboratory, in the second tower.”

“How we getting in?” Pacifica surprised herself with how clinically she was treating breaking and entering, as if this was entirely routine. “Not through the front door I take it?”

For the first time since arriving here, Mabel smiled. “That’d be pretty dumb, huh. Time to say hello to an old friend.” Mabel slipped a black leather bracer onto her forearm. She tightened it, then aimed her arm up at one of the tower’s windows. From beneath her wrist came a puff of compressed air, and a cable fired itself up and hooked onto the wall beside the window. “Hey presto!”

This ingenious device was Mabel’s grapple gauntlet, an invention of her own design. Taking the grappling hook she’d acquired on her first day in Gravity Falls, she’d retro-engineered the device, making it compact enough to fit neatly on the bracer. It granted her a much greater level of mobility, supplementing her already non-trivial abilities in parkour and climbing.

Mabel left the rope hanging and gestured to Pacifica. “You coming or what?” Pacifica realised she’d been standing there for a few moments, just lost in thought. Something about seeing Mabel in action again, even if only in a minor way, had reawakened something inside herself.

“Damn straight I’m coming. Can’t let you have all the fun,” she quipped.

* * *

The corridors of the facility seemed mostly empty, so the girls passed unopposed towards the bridge. At the door, there was a uniformed guard standing watch. Mabel held Pacifica back, then showed off another use of her gauntlet.

She aimed to the opposite side of the hallway. She fired off a shot, but this time the grappling line didn’t shoot out. Instead, Pacifica saw tiny, almost invisible balls fire out of a tube next the hook launcher. They skittered on the floor, making enough noise for the guard to notice.

He went to investigate the sound, and while his back was turned the girls snuck across the bridge into the main tower. Mabel reset her gauntlet. “Distraction pellets, works every time.”

“Very resourceful May. You’ve got this infiltration business down.” This wing of the facility was even quieter than the previous one they’d passed through. Since they had a moment alone, Pacifica risked speaking in a hushed tone. “Do this sort of thing a lot then? I mean, sneaking around, disrupting ‘evil’ corporations.”

Mabel proudly nodded. “Oh yeah, I’m quite the experienced secret agent. All those Mystery Hunts we went on proved to be great preparation.”

“Little miss rebel then, is that it? Crazy to think of all the stuff you’ve been up to. Me and Mason, we… we’ve hardly done anything.” Mabel stopped in the corridor, noticing Pacifica’s mood shift slightly. “We just put so much of ourselves into our work, trying to provide a good life. I think we forgot to live it. Now I find out that you’ve been all over the world! Shit’s crazy.”

Mabel put her hand on Pacifica’s shoulder reassuringly. “Hey, it’s ok. You wanted a quiet life, I can understand. Once this is over…”

“You’ll be heading off to find some new wrong to right?”

Mabel looked away, then snapped back. “It wasn’t my choice to leave. He could’ve at least tried to stay, but Mason… Forget it, old wounds. I get it though, what you wanted. We can’t all be racing across the world being awesome, sometimes you just wanna unwind.”

Pacifica shifted the subject. “So. Eli. You and him. Care to properly explain?” They’d left Mabel’s quasi-romantic partner back at her apartment, he was content to stay out of anything illegal. He’d given shifty looks to Pacifica and Mason as they left, the couple weren’t sure what to make of their old school friend.

“Oh, Eli’s great, nice to have old friends nearby… but it’s not like we’re properly ‘together’. I’m more into Poly stuff these days, you know, fluid relationships. With all the moving around I do, it’s not easy to stick with one person. Besides,” she said, nudging Pacifica. “When have you ever known me to have a long-term relationship?”

Pacifica smiled, and carried on down the hallway, then pursued another line of questioning. “Tell me the most interesting place you’ve been. We might as well start making up for lost time.”

“Well, where to even start? There was the time the Chinese government targeted me for assassination, ooh, or the time my ship nearly sunk trying to stop whalers off the coast of Japan. And who can forget my crazy week in Russia fighting the Vechnyy organisation, I drank so much vodka…”

Pacifica let Mabel ramble until they reached the laboratory. The door was sealed with some kind of keycard lock, which didn’t stop Mabel getting inside with minimal fuss. She’d inherited her Great Uncle Stan’s golden touch with locks of all kinds.

The lab was pretty standard, test tubes and bunsens, as well some heavy equipment and a separate section portioned off by a glass screen. Mabel pulled out her camera and started taking shots all over. Pacifica couldn’t tell what was so wrong about the research done here, but Mabel’s intense look convinced her it wasn’t up to code. It was funny, seeing her still dressed in that goofy tutu and covered in paint and glitter, but acting like a serious industrial saboteur.

While Mabel took shots from every conceivable angle, Pacifica’s eye was drawn to a single electrical component sitting out in the open. A black cylinder, with antennae jutting out on all sides. It was curious, since the rest of the equipment in here seemed geared towards biological study, not engineering or circuitry. “Hey Mabel, what’s this thing over here?”

Mabel came over and winked at her. “Oh that. That’s a radiation transmission spreader, helps widen energy fields. I reckon it’ll be pretty vital if you want to build a portal.”

Pacifica’s mouth dropped open. “What?! You knew about this thing? If it’s that valuable, why didn’t you say something? Mason might have been happier with us coming here if he knew.”

“That wouldn’t have proved anything. I wanted to see if I could rely on you guys to help me out. If you’d known about this doohickey you wouldn’t have been doing it for me, you’d be in it for yourselves. Sorry for not telling you the whole truth.”

“I guess I ‘passed your little test,” Pacifica sneered. She sighed, understanding why Mabel had hidden things. She just wanted to know that she could put her trust in her and Mason, after so long without that guarantee. “Look, let’s just get out of here. Mason’ll probably know if this thing is actually useful.”

She grabbed the chunky cylinder, but as it lifted of the plinth an alarm began ringing out. Mabel suddenly looked panicked, like a scared animal. “Oh no, we gotta bail!” Pacifica started striding for the door, but Mabel went over the worktables. “Just a little parting gift for Re-Gen.”

“Mabel, what are you-“ Pacifica gasped as Mabel fired off a jet of flame from her gauntlet. Evidently she’d brought more than one ammo type with her today. “Are you crazy!?”

Mabel laughed, gleeful at the destruction. It was a bizarre contrast, Mabel looking like a tipsy ballerina in her floofy pink tutu, revelling at all this reckless destruction. One of the chemical test tubes burst open from the heat, sending glass shards flying.

“Oops, we’d better run!” With the alarm blaring and the heat of the flames licking their tail, they ran back towards the bridge. As they stepped out onto the narrow walkway across, their path was blocked by the security guard from earlier entering. He stared them down, preparing to apprehend the pair.

A wild look came into Mabel’s eyes. “Time for escape plan B.”

“What was escape plan A- woah!” Mabel grabbed Pacifica’s hand and ran at one of the window’s lining the bridge. She wasn’t going to stop at the glass. Pacifica covered her face as Mabel hurtled straight through window out into the open air.

She screamed as they fell for a moment, before they collided with something. The solid roof of a truck, speeding down the road. She looked back at the dazed guard, who wasn’t about to risk following them. Beside her, Mabel was grinning madly. “We made it!” Pacifica couldn’t resist breaking into a massive grin either. Then they heard the deep chug of motorcycle engines coming up behind them “Not out of the woods yet Paz!”

Black clad guards were in hot pursuit of them. It seemed that Re-Gen were prepared for dealing with thieves. Pacifica spared a moment to consider that having a secretive mercenary force wasn’t exactly something an ‘ethically sound’ corporation would do. Mabel’s doubts about Re-Gen had been right on the money.

As the wind whipped past them, Mabel got to her feet and ran to the edge of the truck’s roof. Pacifica watched her dive off and land hard on the roof of another car. Getting the idea, she too jumped across to a smaller, faster vehicle, hoping to outrun the bikers.

She realised they had one easy way out of this situation. Reaching into her pocket, she found her phone and dialled Mason. He picked up almost immediately, likely bored of waiting for the two of them. “Hey, Mason, how are you? Me and Mabel are gonna need a quick pickup. Like, right now.”

“Huh, Paz, I can barely hear you. What’s all that noise, wind and cars and stuff?”

“Funny story: We’re in a highspeed car chase. GET HERE NOW!” The call disconnected. Clearly he’d gotten the message. Mabel landed on another car near to hers as they continued to speed down the highway.

“Hanging in there?”

“Mace’ll be along any minute with our getaway. You planned all this out, didn’t you. You mad, crazy woman!”

The girls could only grin at each other, with all the ridiculousness of the situation. One of the Re-Gen motorcycles caught up with their ride, but Mabel acted fast. She fired out a line from her gauntlet, catching onto a highway sign above covered in directions. Using the momentum, she swung over and kicked the biker off, taking the vehicle for her own. The ease with which she’d performed the action strongly suggested to Paz that it hadn’t been Mabel’s first time executing such a confident move. “Hop on!”

Pacifica leapt, more clumsily than her friend, to land on the back of the bike. Mabel’s careful weaving of the bike through the tightly packed traffic also impressed Pacifica. Soon they spotted the pink Mini, with a frantic looking Mason behind the wheel. Mabel pulled alongside as he rolled down the windows. Pacifica climbed in beside her shocked husband.

Mabel then jumped neatly into the backseat, letting the bike slow down and stop without a driver. “Woo, we made it! Floor it Mason, we need to lose anyone tracking us!”

Sitting in the front seat, Pacifica’s heart was racing. She hadn’t been involved in that much action in over half a decade, it was exhilarating. For all her trepidation at uprooting from home and getting involved again, after today all she was feeling was a deep hope burning within herself. A hope that she could have another adventure like that sometime very soon.

* * *

“I can’t believe how reckless you both were! Half the tower’s burnt down, running about like common criminals in the open! You could’ve been killed!”

Mabel rolled her eyes like this was all some game. “Yeah, but we weren’t, Mason. Me and Paz are fine, pulled it off, no worries.”

“But it’s not acceptable-“

“Oh hush Mason.” Pacifica put her finger on his lips. “Don’t be such a stick in the mud. Here, I got you a toy to play with.” She handed him the cylindrical component and his eyes widened.

“But this is a radiation transmission spreader, Mabel helped you retrieve this?” He looked over at his sister, who just stuck her tongue out. “Um, thanks, I guess. So, I guess we’re even now? Are you going to come with us? I mean, wherever we figure out to go next?”

Mabel regarded him coolly but nodded. “Yeah, alright. I was gonna head to LA next, maybe protest the 2028 Olympics. But I guess helping you two out with your ‘dreams’ won’t be totally boring.” Her look softened again, and both siblings finally smiled warmly at each other. “And Dipper? Shave that godawful beard.”

* * *

The smoke from the Re-Gen facility was visible all across the city. By morning, May Pines’ photo would be on every news station, since she, or one of her followers, was the most likely suspect for the arsonist. Eli Corazón observed the diminishing fire from a nearby rooftop. He spoke into a walkie-talkie.

“It’s Eli. Yeah, May Pines left with the two of them. No, I don’t think they suspected a thing. Uh huh? Project Nova was proceeding fine, but I think it’s time we brought in the Black Hole. Yeah, you heard me. I have a hunch we’re going to need to keep a very close eye on the Pines from now on.”


	4. The First Step

A random diner on the road just outside Seattle wasn’t the most auspicious place for making a plan to ‘save the world’, but Mason and Pacifica just needed somewhere quiet to come up with a way forward. While Mabel changed in the diner bathroom, the couple formulated their options. 

Journal 6 was open on the table, with Mason writing down a tentative list of things they’d need. “Ok, so we have a grand total of one portal component. With the radiation emitter from your ‘activities’ last night, it means we still need dozens more small technical parts, as well as some heavy duty structural equipment. Not to mention blueprints for the whole thing, a way to power the setup, oh, and money to fund all of this.”

Pacifica waved a hand. “Money’s no problem. We have a lot saved up from my job, and I can always take some out from my parent’s trust fund. We may not be on speaking terms, but at least they’re fine with me borrowing small amounts from time to time. That’ll keep us going for now.”

“It’s more than that though. Building a portal, that’s one whole crazy thing. But another is figuring out _why_. Why you’re getting visions, what opening the portal is all for. We need answers.”

A call from across the diner drew the pair’s heads. “I know how to get those. We go to where the magic happens!” Mabel had emerged from the bathroom, transformed. She’d discarded the breezy clothes she’d been wearing at her protest. Now she wore a practical looking brown leather jacket, with jeans and shin-high boots. She’d also washed the colourful dye from her short hair. It was a much more sober look than either of them had ever known from Mabel. Compared to the exuberant outfits of her youth it was a clear sign that she was prepared for serious work.

She sat down at the table and dived into Mason’s backpack. “These’ll help.” She’d grabbed Journals 4 and 5. “Lotsa juicy notes about weird stuff, that’s the key. It’s always the way, if something big’s going on, you talk to the people who’ll be most affected.” She poked a finger at a randomly chosen page from Journal 5, showing a creature the trio had discovered around seven years ago, a diminutive green lizard person. “If we go to the source of strange stuff, we’re bound to figure out what’s going on.”

Mason nodded, finding common ground with his sister for the first time in a long while. “Exactly, we have to scour for supernatural stuff too. Both to find out about Pacifica’s visions and to get magical resources that could help with the portal.”

Mabel grinned excitedly. “Awesome, we might be able to help some magical critters out too. We'll be making more of a difference, not just finding sciencey component junk. Eli can look after Apep and my apartment while we’re away, he’ll be fine living alone for a bit.”

Mason scratched his chin. “We can’t just rely on the usual hotspots though, Gravity Falls is too small a sample size.”

Pacifica seemed confused. “I thought that was weirdness capital 101? Where else are we gonna find anything to help us?”

“Gravity Falls is merely the _centre_ of the weirdness, Paz, it’s not the only source in the world. Ford had a theory about that… Anyway, we found plenty of stuff back in California too. I’m thinking we need to go pretty large-scale with this.”

“You mean worldwide?” Pacifica sighed. “I figured it’d be something like that. Nothing’s ever simple is it. Well, what’s your plan for ‘finding the weirdness’ then?”

“I’ve got my old anomalous energy scanner. I’ve already recalibrated it to detect spikes across the whole globe. Those are the ones with the highest concentration of abnormalities, we go there, we might find clues to our big mystery. I’ve identified several promising sites already, in England, Japan, Nepal-”

“Uh, slight problem there, bro,” Mabel interjected. “I can’t fly.”

“What are you talking about?” Mason spluttered. “How else are we supposed to get around the world? Don’t tell me you – who likes to risk life and limb jumping through the air with a grappling hook - is afraid of going in an airplane.”

“It’s not that, dummy! It’s not that I physically can’t fly. It’s… that.” She pointed to a small tv above the diner counter. It was playing a silent news story.

Mason and Pacifica shared an understanding when they saw Mabel’s photo come up on the screen, in connection with the fire in Re-Gen the previous night.

“Ah. That,” Mason stated simply. 

Mabel nodded. “Yup, we go try to get a flight out of the country and I’ll be grounded faster than you can say ‘hot Belgian waffles’.”

Mason threw up his hands. “Great. There goes my plan completely out the window. Got any other ways to ruin my day, sis?” Pacifica saw that he couldn’t help but start to get angry again.

Mabel had a small grin though. “I do have one option, a contact down south who can probably forge me some ID papers. And I have a way to reach him. It’s a bit unconventional, but it’ll do.”

The couple shared another uneasy glance. Those were starting to become a habit around Mabel.

* * *

They arrived at a small warehouse in Westport, on the Pacific coast. It was an anonymous grey building, just offset from a couple of quiet sea-facing condominiums. The sky was overcast, lending a dull pallor to the water.

Mabel stretched as she got out of the car. “Ugh, this useless little thing is a crap car. My butt is so numb! And talk about impractical! How are you supposed to go off-road in a Mini, Dip? It doesn’t even have any spy car features, no hidden weapons or gadgets or anything!”

Pacifica got out beside her. “It’s not meant for that, May. This car gets us from A to B with a minimum of fuss, it’s not meant for ‘monster chasing’.”

Mabel blew a raspberry at her. “I miss the old Hyper-Coyote. Now that was a car with some character, a real soul to it. At least we’re here now.”

Pacifica turned to look at the warehouse. From outside there was no sign of what Mabel was hiding within. Mason locked up the Mini, making sure it was parked relatively securely. If they were leaving the country soon, then it would have to stay safe for quite some time.

“So what have you brought us all the way out here for?” He inquired as they walked towards the low building.

Mabel fumbled with a bunch of keys, then held open the door. “After you guys. Enjoy the late present, Dip.”

Raising an eyebrow, he headed in. It turned out that this wasn’t a simple warehouse. A rectangle shaped area of the floor held a pool of water, and the far wall was open to the ocean. It was a boathouse. And sitting in the water was a small trawler. “Is that what I think it is?” With wide eyes, he turned to Mabel. She simply nodded at the side of the boat. Written by the stern were the words ‘Stan ‘O War II’. “I don’t believe it.”

Pacifica saw the name too. This was the ship that had once belonged to another pair of Pines twins, long ago. “Your uncles’ boat?! I thought this thing had been scrapped or sunk. How did you end up with this, May?”

“Like I said, it was a present. Well, a sad present.” Mabel looked out at the sea. “Stan left it to us in his will.”

“Wait?” Mason shook his head. “_Us_? You mean, he left this for both of us, and you never thought of telling me?!”

Mabel could have tried to tackle the subject with some discretion, but she took the wrong approach. She waved a hand. “Pfft, it’s nothing, I wasn’t using it anyway. Now we both have a use for it. We can go out there and explore the world together, throwing ourselves into the meelee!

Mason was almost red with rage. “_Melee_, it’s pronounced: _Melee_, not ‘meelee’! I can’t believe this, you hid this from me for five years. Stan’s last gift to us, and you hoarded it away without even telling me!”

Pacifica put a hand on his shoulder. “Uh guys, maybe we should all just take a moment to-“

“Pacifica, tell her how selfish she’s been!” Mason angrily pointed at his sister. “This is just like you, all over! You always had to have your own way, you never let me be who I wanted to be!”

“No, it’s not like that! I just wanted something to keep of our past, if this was gonna be Stan’s last present I wanted us to use it right. You were barely talking to me at the time, saw me as a dumb little girl crying out against the world! Pacifica, make him see, I did this cause he wasn’t treating me like a sister. We needed to have this gift together, not while he was wanting to leave me behind!“

Pacifica tried to speak. “Wait, I don’t-“

“Enough with the excuses Mabel!” Mason got in Mabel’s face, buffing out his chest and shouting. “You wanna throw your life away on stupid causes, go ahead! But don’t involve me in your pettiness! I’m perfectly happy living my own life, without you and your high-minded liberal art college garbage!”

“Says the guy who just travelled thousands of miles cause his wife couldn’t get any good sleep! Pacifica, back me up here, he’s being totally unreasonable!”

Mason scoffed. “I’m the one being unreasonable, me?! That’s rich! Paz, come on, let’s just go, we can sort this thing out without her. Paz? Paz?”

Their argument wasn’t going to end anytime soon. So Pacifica had done the only thing she could. She’d started walking towards the Stan O’ War. Mabel cried out after her. “Wait, where are you going Pacifica?!”

Pacifica turned on her heels. “You know what? No. I’m tired of being mediator in your petty squabbles! You two are adults, right? So sort this out like adults. I’m gonna go check out the ship - my parents owned a yacht once, same basic principle.” She strode off before either twin could convince her to stay and back their argument.

Mabel looked back at her equally shocked brother. “Did she just ‘nope’ us? Wow Dip, one thing we can both agree on: Pacifica’s still as no-nonsense as ever.”

Mason actually found himself laughing. “She hasn’t changed, no. Still as domineering as ever. Look at us two. She probably thinks we look like a bunch of kids crying over a broken toy.”

“But we’re not kids, Dip. Not anymore.” She sighed, and once again stared off at that grey horizon. ”Maybe we should try it her way. Talk it out. It feels like we’ve been called out and put on the naughty step 'til we sort ourselves out, huh.”

Mason nudged her side. “More like put in sweater town, am I right.” He sympathetically smiled at her, and she was glad to be reminded of a simpler time. “Suppose we have to figure out a way to get along, so that we don’t tear out each other’s throats before ever getting another portal component.”

Mabel sat by the water, dangling her legs over the edge of the dock. “That’s if you still want me to come,” she said quietly.

“I don’t… I don’t even know anymore.” He sat down beside her, staring down at their suspended feet and murky reflections in the water below. “I didn’t really give it too much thought, Paz was really worried, and I couldn’t see another way. We just jumped on the first idea, to contact you, and didn’t think it all through. Hell, I don’t even know if this is really serious. Vague dreams and one slightly suspicious cosmic event. It hardly adds up to a defined motive to go traipsing around the world for months on end, ruining our careers and any sense of stability we had. It could be a trap, or a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom. Everything would have been so much simpler if only Paz could…” He halted, holding something back. 

Mabel rested an arm on his shoulder. “It doesn’t matter now, Dipper. You’re here, we’re gonna solve this however we can.”

“That’s your patented ‘never-ending optimism’ again.” He wrinkled his nose. “Why do you always believe so strongly that you can succeed? This is gonna be a hard struggle Mabel, we can’t get it done with ‘good vibes’ and feelings.”

Mabel looked at her brother determinedly. “Look Dipper. When I was 19 I wanted to raise money for charity. I wanted to help the homeless in Piedmont. So I started training to climb Kilimanjaro, people sponsored me.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. You went off and hiked it with some of your new college buddies. So what? You raised the money in the end.”

“Yeah, we hit our goal, raised some cash. You wanna know what it bought us? Diddley squat. It was barely enough money to feed one homeless person, let along fix the whole problem. I decided on that day that I wouldn’t lie down and take the world the way it is. In this life nobody gets anywhere by playing nice and following the rules. That’s why I ‘believe’, Dipper. I believe that if I put my mind to it and strive to do everything in my power, then real change can happen. Not by sitting back and accepting the status quo like you do. The world is broken, Dip. I just wanna try and fix it."

Mason scratched his beard. “It just seems childish. One person can’t fix all the injustice there is. Or, in our case, the three of us are supposed to untangle a big space mystery and build something our uncle with 12 PHDs struggled to get working.” He shook his head. “I just don’t have that kind of faith in the way things usually turn out.”

“That word, ‘childish’. I’ve never liked it. It just means all the stuff adults tell you is wrong, that you’ll grow out of. Why is it childish to think we can have better lives, that things aren’t good enough as they are?”

“When you put it that way…” He looked at his sister. He remembered the girl who used to wear vibrant sweaters in the heat of summer. Who wouldn’t care one bit what the world thought of her as she rolled in the grass or explored the woods. Now she wore a subdued outfit, fit for a mission. He was saddened by the idea that she’d never find peace with her goal. She strived for so much. Would she ever time to just enjoy her own life?

“Why’d you grow it, Dip?” Mabel was looking intently at his face.

“Oh, the beard.” He’d dabbled with various styles of facial hair over the years. Modest goatees, moustaches, even muttonchops during one, regrettable period. Nothing ever really felt right. “I guess I wanted to look a bit more confident. I was tired of never being sure of myself, so I committed to it.”

“You did use to alternate styles more. What was wrong with just going clean shaven though, that wouldn’t have been so drastically different.”

"Because back when I was younger, whenever I shaved it you said I looked to babyish."

"I'm sorry, I didn't think-"

"That's just it, you never do. You never think about what consequences your actions will have on other people in the future."

“You mean like you coming to get my help, but not knowing what to do once you got it?”

Mason briefly gasped, but then couldn’t stifle a grin. His sister was right. “Oh man, what are the two of us like.” He gestured at the ship sitting in the dock in front of them. “We’re as bad as those two were back in the 70’s. Broken apart over stupid stuff.”

“Last time we met, at Stan’s funeral, you said you wanted me to stay away if I was gonna keep stirring things up with the police. When our Grunkles broke apart again, I think we did in part too.”

“Maybe you were right about this ship after all then. I may not agree with your activism, and you may not like how I left you behind. But we can put that aside for now.” He stood up and held out his hand. “Really Awkward Sibling Handshake?”

She took his hand and held it tightly. “Really Awkward Sibling Handshake.”

“Hey, when you two dorks are done hugging it out, I’ve got something to show you!” Pacifica called at them from the ship’s cabin. Brother and sister split apart, not back to being true friends, but understanding something of each other at last.

In the cabin, Pacifica was hunched over a small kitchen cupboard. “Looks like your uncles kept this tub stocked up pretty well, everything’s still in date. Though there’s only tinned soup or brown meat. And since you two are both veggies, that means more brown meat for me. Oh, what a day.”

“Uh, you wanted to show us something Paz?” Mason said.

“Right, sorry. This boat ride to May’s contact is gonna be a rough one, that’s all. Forgive me for wanting a certain level of comfort. Here’s the important thing.” She knelt behind the ship’s wheel and slid a small compartment open. There was a book inside. “This wasn’t your uncles’. May, is this something else you wanna tell us?”

Mabel slapped her forehead. “Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that! Honestly, I wasn’t planning on hiding this.” She reached in and took the book, before offering it to her brother. “Consider this a fig leaf. A way to start putting things right.”

Mason took the book. It was another journal, the same size as his older books. The cover was a very deep blue, practically black, with golden glittery stars marking out the pattern of the Big Dipper across the front and round the spine to the back. The number of the cover marked it as Journal 7.

“Ta da,” Mabel weakly said.

“Mabel, this is…” He placed his palm on the cover. It was a beautifully made book, with all of Mabel’s passion and creativity poured into it. Her years at art school had really paid off. “It’s wonderful. You made this, when?”

“Back a few years ago. I thought, hey, when he runs out of space in Journal 6 he’ll need something new. Thought I might as well spice up the cover too. Makes sense to give it to you now, make a decisive break from the old journals. So… you like it?” she said, hopefully.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, then put the book down on the counter. Mabel looked away sadly but was taken aback when she felt her brother’s hands bring her into a hug. It was the first time they’d embraced time since they’d learnt of Stan’s death five years before. “I love it Mabel.” He parted from the hug and took the new book. “You’re right. A new start with a new journal. Now let’s get this ship on the high seas! Avast ye mateys and shiver me timbers!” There was silence in the cabin. “Am I overdoing it?”

Both girls nodded, then broke into laughter. “So, May,” Pacifica asked. “How far is it to this contact of yours? I wanna spend as little time as possible in this ship before we can get it renovated or replaced.”

“Oh, that. Uh, yeah, you might not like my answer. How does three and half thousand miles away sound?”

This time it was Pacifica’s turn to get angry at Mabel. Mason chuckled to himself. Three thousand miles sounded like it would give him a lot of time to start work on his new journal at least.


	5. The Contact

The thickness of the jungle provided a hard obstacle for the trio, as they made their way inland. The heat and humidity made it even trickier, but they soldiered on, carving a path with machetes. Mason wiped the heavy sweat off his brow. “Can’t we rest for a moment? These vines aren’t easy to cut you know.”

“Not yet Dipper.” Mabel pushed him onwards. “I can still see the Stan ‘O War back there, we’ve barely left the shore.”

Ahead of them Pacifica called back. “Yeah, it’s not so tough Mason. Just need to put in a little effort.” She cleanly swiped a vine out her way, as if it was personally offending her. “It’s certainly more exciting being here than spending all your time in that observatory.”

“Where is ‘here’ anyway? All I see is a vast expanse of impenetrable jungle.”

Mabel smugly spoke. “Aha, for once the great Dipper doesn’t know everything! You might have all that magicky journal knowledge, but out here in the real world Mabel’s got all the intel. This is the Chocó Department, it’s one of the poorest parts of Colombia.”

“Much good that does us, all I can see is this endless rainforest.” Mason struggled with cutting another long vine is his way. It wasn’t budging much under his assault. “We’ve sailed all the way down the coast of Central America with nothing to look at but vast blue sea, and the first place we set foot on land looks like one identical wall of green foliage.”

Mabel chopped the vine he’d been struggling with and strode past. “At least it’s not on fire. In the south I hear the cities are either covered in the smoke or are arid wastelands. This is a precious place, Dipper, you should treasure your time here. I tried to campaign against the burning of the Amazon a few years back, got locked up a couple of times in Brazil.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me. This had better be worth it, I hope your contact can deliver the papers we need to get you on a flight.”

“Even if he doesn’t, it’s good enough just to get to stretch our legs,” Pacifica called back again. “That creaking tub was one of the worst things I’ve ever ridden on. It was damp, leaky, slow. Not to mention the sleeping arrangement.”

Mabel poked her friend in the back. “Aw, come on Paz, bunk beds are awesome – they’re two beds in one, double the fun!”

“Not when you have to share with Mason!” 

Mabel chuckled and tried in vain to cut through a thick section of the jungle. Mason caught up with her and joined in, but neither twin could make any headway deeper. “Ugh, how are you so good at this Paz? It’s like you’re a natural explorer.”

"You guys forget, I grew up in the deep woods of Oregon. I might have lived in luxury, but the outdoors is still a part of me. You can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl. Or in this case, jungle." To emphasise the point, she slashed a large vine in their way, then held the tattered remains away like a curtain. "After you."

They made camp in a small clearing, about an hour’s trek from the ship. Mabel didn’t know the precise spot they’d be meeting her contact at, just a general location. They’d reach the coordinates in the morning. As they settled down for the night, Pacifica couldn’t resist putting a question to Mabel. “This contact of yours, who is he exactly? Can’t help but notice he lives pretty far from civilization.”

“You could say he’s an old family friend.” Mabel left that cryptic statement to hang, then continued putting up her tent. “I trust him with my life, you’ll see.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure how far your trust will get us, sis.” Mason still wasn’t ready to fully accept all of Mabel’s current choices. For now he was letting her take the lead, and he was clearly chafing at the bit to get back in charge.

“I keep telling you Dipper, if you trust in other people, they usually put their trust in you.”

“Or, they use that trust to manipulate and betray you. It’s not always sunshine and roses.” He too focused on putting up his and Pacifica’s tent. “I hope we can get out of here quickly; this jungle gives me the creeps. It’s too enclosed.” He looked around the clearing, a tight space surrounded by trees with no gaps. They’d had to cut their way in through a large tangle of foliage.

Mabel put her hand reassuringly on his shoulder. “Dipper, don’t worry. I’m used to this sort of thing, my senses are highly attuned, if anything creeps up on us in the night, I’ll know. Just watch out for frogs.”

“Frogs?” Pacifica asked.

“The Golden Poison frog is endemic to this region. It’s one the most poisonous creatures on the planet! Some tribes near here use the poison in their blow-darts. So, no touching strange amphibians in the night!” Mabel finished making her tent and ducked inside. “See you lovebirds in the morning!”

Mason turned to Pacifica. “Great. That’s really reassuring. Having any second thoughts about all this? We could have stayed at home and lazed around the house.”

“You know I’m committed to this Mason. I’m going to get to the bottom of those dreams no matter what.”

* * *

As it happened, Pacifica’s sleep that night was interrupted by yet another one of her vivid dreams. She had slept decently since leaving New Jersey, despite the rough conditions of the travelling and the stress involved. But now her nightmares had returned in full force.

This time her dream wasn’t about the ever-looming portal. She was back in the dark cave with the flickering orange torchlight. There was the wall of symbols. The space within the ring was occupied by a green eye, messily painted later than the rest of the symbols. She felt more aware of herself than in previous dreams, so tried to study the paintings.

The iris of the eye was a narrow slit, like the eye of a snake. But there was something open about the image, like it suggested feelings of honesty. She didn’t know what that meant, though it was something positive to glean from these visions at least.

She turned her attention to the ten symbols around the edge. Her eye caught on one to the bottom left. It was a crudely drawn pictogram of an animal with a long neck. “Llama.” That voice, the one that had told her to remember. “The journey of a million billion miles begins with a single step.”

She searched for the voice to no avail. She ran her hand along the cave wall, but it didn’t crumble this time. She drew her hand away quickly as she felt something almost alive in the wall. Red paint began seeping out onto some of the symbols. Four of them were blocked out by red crosses.

In the vague state of the dream she couldn’t make out which symbols were being obscured. It was clear that it was a bad sign though. The central green eye blinked shut. Then Pacifica was elsewhere again. Two figures were talking, though once again they were frustratingly unrecognisable, like she could only glimpse them out of the side of her eye.

“No, I don’t think they suspected a thing.”

“One can never be certain of anything around those two. I know from experience.”

The timeframe shifted. Now she was seeing a massive wall of dull grey metal, reaching up to touch the sky. She couldn’t tell whether it was meant to keep her in, or to keep something else out. All she knew was that it was closing in around her, constricting her until it began to hurt. Crushed by this towering wall, she heard one last fragment of speech from the two figures. 

“I have a hunch we’re going to need to keep a very close eye on the Pines from now on.”

“We’d better. Or else our enemies will succeed in getting to them first.”

* * *

Pacifica woke up with a quick scream. Another dream. Another ruined night’s sleep.

Her scream hadn’t seemed to wake Mason, who simply turned over in his sleeping bag beside her. Already the details of the dream were once again trickling away. She held on to the image of the green eye though, there was that warm sense she got from the image that made her trust it.

Rubbing her eyes, she felt the rough ground. Sleeping in a tent hadn’t got any easier since her first hiking trip with Mason a decade prior. Resigning herself to getting some fresh air, she wrapped a blanket round her shoulders and clambered out into the clearing.

It was a starry night above, giving a small level of illumination to the jungle floor. There was enough light to make out that she wasn’t the only one out here. Legs pulled close, Mabel was sitting and staring up at the sky. It reminded her of all the long hours Mason could spend observing the stars at his observatory. Pacifica quietly approached, not wanting to disturb her friend’s quiet gazing.

“I heard you scream. You feeling alright Paz?”

“Huh, you really weren’t lying about having heightened senses.” She sat beside Mabel and stared upwards with her. “Just a bad dream May. Those are annoyingly common these days. What are you doing up though?”

Mabel finally looked down from the panoply of stars. Pacifica noticed that her cheeks were freshly wet. “Ah, it’s nothing. Quiet night alone, that’s all.”

“Hey, you can open up to me. We’re sisters, remember? May-May and Paz-Paz.”

That brought a smile to Mabel’s lips. “Yeah, sisters. It’s not your fault though. I know it’s your dreams that caused all this, but that’s not why I’m out here. I’m lonely.”

“Lonely? But you’ve got us two?”

“Yeah, but that’s different to how it used to be, isn’t it. Mason made sure of that.” She sighed. “When I saw him again I thought 'yay, Dipper's come back to be my brother'. Instead he just needs me to help him out.”

"You're helping me out too, does that count for anything?"

“Yeah, I suppose so. Crazy to think you and I are still so close. Bet you never imagined back at that party at the Mystery Shack that I’d still be driving you crazy 15 years later. It’s not seeing _you_ again that’s the problem though. Mason and I can work together, but it hurts having someone I care so close… yet we’re further apart than ever before.”

“I think I understand. Sometimes, back when my parents ruled over me, it was like torture to just be around Mason, knowing we could never be together. Look at us now though.” She jabbed a thumb at the tent where he was currently sleeping contentedly. “If my parents can do it, well, anyone can. You’ll see, Mace’ll come around eventually, May.”

“Heh, you know, you don’t have to keep calling me ‘May’.”

“Isn’t that what you wanna be called now? Thought you were all about making a ‘serious’ mark on the world.”

“That’s just my ‘professional’ name. The news calls me that, so I might as well follow their lead.” She shrugged. “I don’t care what you call me though, it doesn’t have to be like with _Mason_.”

Pacifica smiled, then laid her head on Mabel’s shoulder. “Alright then Mabel. You can be my pillow this evening.”

“Ha, I’d better watch out, I’ll make Dipper jealous.” Mabel stuck out her tongue and turned back to gazing upwards. “The stars really are pretty out here away from all the light pollution.” Pacifica studied her friend’s eyes and followed their trail. Mabel was looking directly at one particular constellation - Gemini. She knew exactly what significance that star sign held for Mabel right now.

* * *

The muggy heat of the morning woke Pacifica up. She stretched off a still sleeping Mabel, who was noisily snoring. Mason hadn’t emerged from the tent either. She found her llama journal and started sketching Mabel. She made quite a picture, with her mouth gaping open and her short hair all ruffled.

There was a crack of a twig from beyond the clearing. Pacifica was initially inclined to brush it off – this place was teeming with life, they’d seen numerous lizards and birds the previous day, not forgetting the ever present swarms of bugs zipping around. But, like Mabel, Pacifica too had a heightened awareness for certain things. She had a detail oriented view of the world, fostered by her family’s intense perfectionism during her childhood. At a distance she could spot the slightest wrong feature in a scene.

The scene she was looking at felt very wrong indeed.

Part of the canopy ringing their encampment swiftly unfolded and moved towards her. A man in camo gear unfurled a net covered in leaves, a perfect way to hide in the jungle. He hefted a machine gun up at Pacifica and she stuck her hands in the air as fast as she could.

“No te Muevas. Quiénes son, intrusos? “ His tone was clipped, no-nonsense. This soldier would likely fire given the smallest provocation.

Pacifica tried to respond. “I- I don’t understand-“

“Estas con Rico.” Mabel was suddenly fully awake beside her. Pacifica wondered if she’d even really been asleep or had simply been waiting for this moment. ”Somos amigos. Amigos.” She held her arms wide as she repeated the word, one of the few intelligible words of Spanish Pacifica could make out. Friends. “Soy May Pinos. Reconocen este símbolo?”

Mabel pulled up the sleeve of her jacket, showing off her tattoo lined arms. She pointed at one in particular, a sigil resembling the head of a small crocodile. The stranger raised his eyebrows at seeing the symbol. “Eres uno de nosotros! Qué quieren ustedes?”

“Eso es sencillo. Llévanos a tu líder.” The man considered Mabel’s words, then nodded. He raised two fingers and whistled. Two more armed men entered the clearing and gestured for the girls to move.

Mabel turned back to Pacifica and smiled. “It’s ok, they’re going to take us to my contact.”

“You never told me you spoke _fluid Spanish!_” Pacifica said, still not over the shock.

“I speak 7 languages now sis!” She started listing them off as she gathered up the important equipment from her tent. “English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, and Pig Latin.”

“That’s not a real-“

“Ixnay on the ealray, Azpay!” Mabel giggled and started heading off after the soldiers, seeming completely at home among the tough men.

“What did you even say to these guys?” She eyed them warily, still not comfortable around their heavy weapons.

“In basic terms, what I said was: Take us to your leader! Always wanted to say that, it’s just as cool as it is in the movies!” Mabel grinned widely and skipped after the lead soldier.

One of the men went into the tent where Mason was sleeping, then lead him bleary eyed out into the sunlight. “Wh-what’s going on? Pacifica?”

“I think Mabel just got us captured by armed mercenaries. On the plus side, we definitely aren’t going to need a language interpreter wherever we go next.”

Mason, half-exhausted and totally lost just nodded in agreement and let himself be led deeper into the jungle thicket.

* * *

The soldiers brought them to a large rectangular compound, surrounded by high concrete walls. There was a guard tower at each of the four corners, and the area inside contained a handful of blocky buildings and a large open space. It resembled a military training ground, though the men occupying it were clearly outside the mandate of any official army.

On edge, Mason and Pacifica stayed close together, not wanting to upset their ‘hosts’. Mabel was staring around at the men with an almost wistful look in her eyes, like she was visiting an old childhood retreat.

Pacifica noticed more of the same crocodile symbol that Mabel had inked on her arm, painted here and there like a gang marking. In the centre of the camp they were told to wait, before a fat elderly man exited one of the buildings to greet them. The man looked like he was pushing 90, with thinning hair and a big wrinkled nose.

He stepped forwards with the aid of a cane and addressed Mabel directly. “Bien bien bien. Si no es el pequeño May Pines, viniendo a visitarme nuevamente. ¿Te atreves a mostrar tu cara aquí después de lo que hiciste?” He seemed to mean business to Mason and Pacifica watching on.

Mabel crossed her arms and smirked. “Rico. Nos encontramos de nuevo.”

“Entonces, ¿es así como me saludas?”

“Sabes que no podría dejar pasar esa oportunidad.” Mabel then broke into a grin and ran towards the man. Mason and Pacifica expected them to start fighting hand to hand, and Mabel threw her arms around the man’s neck.

And brought him into a hug. “Tío Rico! It’s been so long!”

“Mabel my dear little sobrina! I haven’t seen you ages! Who are these two gringos you’ve brought me then, May?”

“This is my brother and my sister-in-law!” Mabel helped the old man walk towards the couple.

“Ah, the famous Dipper and Pacifica, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Woah woah woah, back up a bit here,” Mason said. “_This_ is your contact? Who is this old geezer?”

“Oh Dipper, you don’t have to worry. This is uncle Rico! He used to be an old buddy of Grunkle Stan, way back in the olden days.”

“Hey, I’m not in the grave yet, young missy,” Rico playfully said. “How is my old buddy Stan? That slimy scoundrel of a snake! I bet that grifter’s still trying to con some poor sap out of their life savings, ha!”

Mabel momentarily frowned. “Stan’s… passed, Rico. He’s gone.”

Rico was shocked for a moment, but then smiled happily. “Then we shall celebrate his memory, as a rival and an ally!” He let out a cheer and the gathered soldiers cheered along with him. Mason and Pacifica, still feeling at odds with the situation, looked to Mabel for help.

“Rico here leads the Hombres Caiman, Crocodile Men. Don’t worry, the name’s not literal, there aren’t any were-crocs, lol. They’re a sort of semi-legal transportation outfit, I ran with this crew a lot back in the day.”

“And by ‘transportation’, you mean smuggling, right?” Mason hadn’t failed to notice a number of unmarked crates stacked in the open area, and vehicles being loaded for pickup. Some of the crates contained what were clearly packages of narcotics. Mabel nodded in confirmation. “And by ‘semi-legal’, you mean-“

“Totally illegal, like, 100%.”

“You’re sure we can trust this guy?” Pacifica couldn’t quite picture the same Mabel who’d once aggressively challenged her to a cutesy mini-golf tournament working with a secret para-military drug smuggling organisation. Yet, the Mabel of the present looked right at home here.

Both Mason and Pacifica found this small window into Mabel’s life disconcerting. It was much more aggressive that the girl they’d known before. Mabel really was committed to doing whatever she thought was ‘right’, no matter how many ethical grey zones that took her through.

Rico turned back to Mabel. “So my little niece, what have you come all the way down here to visit me for?”

“I need you to get me a new passport, it has to be perfect. We’re planning on taking a lot of flights soon. It’s for a… ‘secret purpose’,” she ‘whispered’, so loudly that half the camp could probably hear her.

Rico nodded. “Of course, it will only take a moment to provide.”

“Um, Mr Rico, we could do with some other supplies too,” Mason asked hesitantly.

“Ah, you mean for patching up that useless paper boat you have anchored just out to sea? Anything you need. Your family is my family! Hey!” He clapped his hands and some men started bringing out a pair of animals laden with supplies.

Pacifica gasped when she saw the animals. “Llamas! Real life llamas! Oh my gosh, they’re so adorable!”

“Si, si, we keep a few of these animals for transport purposes. They aren’t native, but these sturdy imports are perfect for crossing the jungles on foot.”

Pacifica ran over and started petting the neck of the one of the llamas. “This is amazing, I’m really touching it, Mason look!”

Seeing her acting so innocent and happy finally calmed Mason’s nerves, and he laughed out loud. “Hey, _uncle_ Rico, maybe you’re not such a bad guy after all.”

“Ha, for you Pines, I’d do anything!” The old man got right up in Mason’s face and dropped his voice to a menacingly quiet level. “Unless you cross me, boy, then I _will_ show no mercy.”

Mason gulped. Then Rico burst out laughing and slapped him hard on the back.

“Ha, ain't he a riot, guys?” Mabel hugged the old man once again. “Thank you so much uncle Rico! This is such a big help for us.” Mason wasn’t sure what had just happened exactly. But at least they could finally get started on the task they’d travelled so far from home to achieve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to El Jedi Colombiano for checking over my Spanish translations in this chapter.


	6. The Serpent

_October 12th:_

_This journey’s never gonna end. It’s just the sea, and the boat, day in, day out. Ever since Colombia. Mason’s ‘brilliant decision’ to stick with the boat instead of just getting a quick flight is so annoying. I know he has a sentimental attachment to this floating wreck but come on!_

_Mabel’s fine with it too, somehow. It’s all the dumb bus journeys they used to take between Gravity Falls and Piedmont, they’ve got used to the waiting around. She says we should rename the ship now, since it’s not the ‘Stans’’ anymore and we basically repaired it enough to call it a new vessel. She opted for something in the vein of the old Hyper-Coyote, like calling it the SS Crocodile Man, or the good ship Celestabellebethabelle, ugh._

_In the end, Mason and I decided to go with the ‘Mystery’. Sounds enigmatic enough to appeal to that dork’s sensibilities, plus it’s got a kind of class to it._

_This Colombian food is too spicy for me as well. I’ll be glad when we can land somewhere with decent fancy food again. Mason seems to think we’ll make landfall in a day or two. It’s pretty cool, he’s using his astronomy know-how to guide us at night. Astral navigation, it’s really impressive._

_He detected an energy spike in Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula. So instead of flying to Europe, we’re holding off and checking this out._

_Passing through the Panama Canal was the only exciting part of the trip so far. Mabel (or Maddie Pinsborough, as her new passport has it) hid in the cabin the whole time, didn’t wanna get caught. _

_We also made a quick stop in Costa Rica. The twins wanted to check out some urban legend. The Diquís spheres, that’s what they said they were called. Supposedly they’re unusual, too smooth to be natural. Just looked like a bunch of rocks to me. _

_At least Mason and Mabel had a chance to reminisce about a Mystery Hunt they went on years ago, better than their arguing._

_Despite being back together, they’ve been mostly keeping apart on the boat. Mabel spends endless hours on the deck, thinking to herself. I think she seems to be joining me in getting cabin fever at last. Mason’s keeping himself busy with his new Journal 7, filling the pages with research or looking up info on the portal parts. _

_They’re simmering, neither willing to open up. Sometimes when they’re in the room together it feels as cold a bare wind out on the deck at night. Ugh, I’ve been at sea too long, I’m thinking up nautical metaphors now, eesh._

_That portal though, our end goal. It still feels daunting. We don’t even know what we’re doing it all for. Are we right to meddle in these things? The world nearly ended before thanks this stuff, following blind dreams. I remember all the fire and destruction._

_With all these boat trips, we’ve now been away from Trenton for about a month. That house never truly felt like a _home_, but I still miss it. It’s not easy, all this constant movement. I don’t know how Mabel handles it, having to upheave everything whenever a new scheme takes her fancy._

_If it wasn’t for those damn dreams I’d probably not have left. I’d still be at home, living my quiet life, wondering what I want to do with myself. I’d still be working on those architectural plans. Ok, maybe there are some upsides. At least I’m not working on those damn architectural plans…_

* * *

After the sweltering jungles of Colombia, the new jungle the trio found themselves in was a world of difference. Clear paths had been bulldozed through the trees, making access trivial. No machetes would be required today. This lent an openness to the landscape, more inviting to visitors. The sounds of animal life were much more subdued this close to a human settlement.

They emerged into a vast open clearing and were slightly startled to see dozens of other people already standing around. Roped off holes in the ground were filled with remnants of pottery and carvings. At the far end of the clearing was a rising building of grey stone, made up of multiple steps rising to a point.

This was the Pyramid of Kukulkan, the central and most famous structure in Chichen Itza. Mabel was noticeably antsy about being around so many people again after their long boat trip, so this time Mason took the lead. At the foot of the pyramid, by the carved figures of open-mouthed snakes lining the staircase, he brought out Journal 7. It was his time to shine.

“Alright girls, it’s been a long fortnight, but we’re finally here. Ready to get started with our first Mystery Hunt in about 6 years?” This couldn’t help but raise a smile from the two of them. “Alright, quick facts. Chichen Itza, built by the Maya circa 800AD as a regional capital.” He showed them the journal page he’d prepared, with a detailed map of Mayan settlements.

Mabel rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah bro, get to the good stuff. The reason we’re here would be good. I don’t care about the history, just give me the juicy magic intel!”

Pacifica was mildly taken aback. “I’m surprised, I thought you’d enjoy something like this. A little bit of history.”

“Yeah, but it’s so dumbed down. I just hate all the commodification. Look at that over there, a gift shop! This place used to be a real city, where people made their lives. Now it’s just cheap pandering for the tourists. People getting rich off the suffering of the natives who built this place, it’s cultural vandalism! I prefer history when it’s still alive, not this stagnant crap.”

“Ahem,” Mason coughed into his fist, hoping to avoid another long-winded lecture from Mabel on the evils of capitalism. He had his own long-winded lecture to get through, after all. “So, the energy spike I detected is actually _beneath_ the site. The archaeologists haven’t found anything there, so it’s fair game for us. The Maya probably kept it hidden away safe, so the Spanish missed it.”

Pacifica rested a boot on the first step of the pyramid. “Maybe it’s something to do with the solstice, these steps are supposed to line up with the sunlight. Are we gonna have to wait ‘til then?” She looked at the statues at the base of the staircase. “What about these? Is this some mythological figure.”

Mason flipped back a page. “These are feathered serpents, representations of the god Kukulkan.”

“Ooh, like my girl Apep!” Mabel was missing her pet snake, she always liked to cuddle up with an animal after a tiring day. “Though if there’s a magic snake god around I just hope it doesn’t make us weigh our hearts against a feather again.”

Mason read from his notes. “Says here that in one legend the snake was a boy. His sister looked after him until he got too big to feed. He caused an earthquake breaking out of a cave, then they had to separate, never to see each other again. Hmm, why does that sound familiar, two siblings who can’t get along.” He pointedly looked at Mabel, who pouted.

Pacifica came over and took Journal 7 off her stubborn husband. “Here’s another story, Kukulkan flew up to the sun to speak with it, but had his tongue burnt off for his hubris. Cheery, that really bodes well.” She didn’t have to mention how the story reminded them all of their own plan to pierce the heavens with the portal.

“Enough story-time you guys,” Mabel said. “If we’re gonna have to get inside a secret entrance, then there’s one simple option. Pacifica, we need to use your pendant.”

Pacifica’s hand reached up to her neck, to the silver pine tree necklace she wore. It was far more than simple silver, Mason had made sure of that. He hadn’t settled for less than magically enchanting it before giving it to Paz years ago. The pendant reacted strongly in the presence of objects or creatures with magical properties, spinning around like a magnet near its opposite pole.

Taking Mabel’s advice, she held the pendant out in front of her face. She waited, watching the silver tree turn slowly in the air, as yet un-stimulated by any of the magic it was imbued with. Then, slowly, the rotation of the pendant began to speed up. Her eyes widened and she felt a tingle of excitement inside her.

This spinning meant that something supernatural was nearby. It had been so long since she or Mason had ever found anything out of the ordinary. The possibilities of that side of the world had been buried in their past like the ruins around the clearing for so long. Her pendant was the tip of the iceberg, showing the way back.

Then she realised that it was only spinning because Mabel was blowing air on it beside her. She clutched the pendant in her fist and started blushing with embarrassment.

“Oh, I got you so good Paz! You looked like you were about cry or something, just cause I blew a little wind in your face!”

“That’s not funny Mabel! Gah, stop being so immature!” She stormed off around the side of the pyramid, wanting to have some space and feeling stupid for even trying the pendant. Of course there was nothing special about these stones. They were piled up lumps of rock. She kicked the side of the pyramid, not caring that she was abusing an ancient monument.

Her fragile hope that there could be more had been dashed away by Mabel’s dumb little prank. It reminded her too much of another hope she’d once had, a fragile hope she’d clung to in the last five years. That had been taken away from her too, and she’d never got it back. She sat on the step of the pyramid and slumped her head in her hands.

She tried to calm her nerves and focus. Her hand reached up to fiddle with her pendant, that repetitive action that always served to distract her wayward thoughts. There was a resistance though, the pendant fought her movements.

She let it go, allowing it to hang naturally. It didn’t halt its movement, still lightly twisting in the air. She leapt off the stone at once, then leant down to examine it closer. As she approached, the pendant began to spin faster.

“Guys, get over here, now!” she yelled around to the others. She’d struck an iceberg after all. Hell, more than that. She’d rammed the whole Titanic into it.

* * *

The stone at the edge of the temple had slid away, revealing a narrow passageway. There seemed to be a complex network of tunnels running beneath the pyramid, and in true tomb raider style, Mason found and lit a flaming torch to light their way. “This is something I’ve missed. The thrill of discovery, knowing that nobody else has seen these secrets before!”

He shone the torch around. The walls of the tunnel were lined with intricate carvings, many showing the long elongated snake patterns marking this place as Kukulkan’s domain. The passage was only wide enough for one person to fit at a time, so the girls followed behind.

Pacifica’s pendant had gone still after they’d opened the sealed door, but now spun once more. She pulled Mason backwards as she heard a clicking sound. “Watch out!” A jet of purple smoke shot out of the wall, moving from one side to the other. A small bit of overgrown foliage caught in the smoke starting sizzling.

“Woah, they booby trapped this place!” Mabel leant forward excitedly to try and see the mechanism. “So cool! Paz, you’d better go first from now on, you can show us the safe path.”

The passage eventually widened, but the trio still kept tightly together. Pacifica navigated them forwards, holding her pendant out in front of her like it was a totem to ward off evil spirits. At one point she took a step forward onto a panel on the floor, which sunk under her weight. 

She quickly stepped backwards, narrowly missing a whizzing dart that shot past her face. “Ah, Jesus. Guess not all the traps are magical. We’ve gotta watch out for mundane traps too.” Like at the break-in back in Seattle, Pacifica was finding it natural to slip back into the role of ‘adventurer’ after being dormant for so long. As they progressed forwards, she pulled out her journal and sketched some of the wall art.

Carrying the torch, Mason couldn’t do the same with his new Journal 7. He still wasn’t quite sure how to take his new book. On the one hand, more journal space was always appreciated, and Mabel’s craftsmanship had made the book look fantastic. But all the unsure feelings he had towards his sister tempered his enthusiasm.

Mabel bumped his side, as if to illustrate all his negative assumptions. “Ah, this is the life, eh Dip? Just like the good old days!”

“Good old days!?” he spluttered. “When were those again? When the world was nearly ended by Bill Cipher? That time the Ursus nearly Aligned the entire universe? Or was it that time your crazy clone nearly wiped us all out?!”

“Well, yeah. Those times were fun!”

He shook his head and groaned. Mabel’s immaturity once again grated on Mason like nails on a chalkboard. Why couldn’t she just act her age for once, be responsible?

He halted, realising something about himself and letting the girls go on ahead. Since when had his sister’s habits become so inimical to him? Back in the day he’d have joined in with Mabel’s goofy antics with glee. Nowadays he’d never play homemade mini-golf or have tickle fights.

And Mabel _was_ infuriatingly right. Even when his life had come close to ending in a fiery doom several times, there had always been that adrenaline and passion keeping him going. There was also the satisfaction he gained from saving the world, nothing could compare to the accomplishment he felt in moments like those. He sighed, then ran to catch up with the others.

When Pacifica saw him, she pointed out the route he’d need to take to avoid another magical deathtrap. “Uh guys, I’ve been thinking of something. If this place has so many traps, then what exactly was worth so much to keep hidden?” Neither of them replied. They knew from experience that nobody built an elaborate puzzle tomb without something incredibly valuable sealed within.

The passage unexpectedly brought them to an area with natural lighting. Mason threw down the torch, then shielded his eyes from the sun to look upwards. They were in a vast cylinder of rock. At the top was clear sky, and the rim above was lined with thick trees. The base of the cylinder held a wide lake of water.

“Neat, we’re in a cenote. The weak limestone has been worn down by the elements, leaving these big holes slap bang in the middle of the jungle.” The girls nodded, slightly awed by the dramatic natural sight. Explaining the geography to an enraptured audience made Mason feel smug, so he brought out Journal 7 and started comparing with his maps. “Looks like an undiscovered one too. Archaeologists have speculated that there was a hidden one of these beneath El Castillo for some time, seems they were right all along!”

Pacifica looked down into the water, which was crystal clear. “What did the Maya use this place for? Doesn’t look like much.”

“Maybe it was just a religious thing, a sacred site?” Mabel posited. “Or maybe just for skinny dipping, who knows.”

“I know some of the history of what they used other cenotes for,” Mason said, finding a relevant passage in his notes. “In times of drought, the priests would gather over at the ‘sacred’ cenote. Then they’d throw in an offering to their gods, like Kukulkan.”

Pacifica nodded, getting the gist. “Oh, like gold and jewels? A big cosmic bribery, that it? My parents would’ve probably enjoyed that.”

“Not exactly Paz. The offerings were usually more… human.” Pacifica gasped in shock, recoiling slightly from the pool. “It’s ok, we shouldn’t judge the Mayan people too harshly. They had a very different way of life-“

“Enough of that Dipper.” Mabel just shook her head. “It’s still wrong to sacrifice people. I don’t wanna hear anymore ‘moral relativism’ today, thank you. Let’s just find the magic thing we came for and get outta here.”

Mason huffed. “I wasn’t done explaining. Not everyone who was thrown in died. The survivors were said to have been blessed with the power to prophesy the future!”

“Pfft, I get enough of that when I sleep, thank you very much.” Pacifica splished the water with the toe of her boot, then turned her nose up at it.

“We need to give an offering of our own then,” Mabel said. Mason was about to suggest some Mayan rituals he knew about, but then a rope fired up at the side of the cenote. It impacted into the soft rock tightly. “I’ve got something the Maya didn’t have. Grappling Hook!” The couple couldn’t stop her before she launched into the air, riding up on her line.

As Mabel reached the height of her hook, about halfway up the cenote, she released the line and backflipped in the air. She splashed down into the water in a perfect swan dive, finally calming Mason and Pacifica’s racing hearts. They never had got completely comfortable with Mabel’s death-defying aerial acrobatics.

Mabel’s head popped out of the pool and she cleared some hair out of her mouth. “Ooh, refreshing! You guys should come in too, maybe skinny dipping wasn’t such a crazy idea after all! Zing!” Her playful swimming didn’t last long, however. The cenote shook like an earthquake, sending ripples across the surface of the lake.

Things went still for a moment, then part of the water seemed to slowly rise up in front of Mabel. The couple held their breath, studying this supernatural occurrence. It was the first magical thing either of them had seen in years. The wonder of the moment almost overcame them.

Mabel was slightly more concerned with her own situation to marvel at the tendril of water, as it rose and moved slightly towards her. The blank end of the water moulded into a new shape, gaining defined features – a wide mouth, a pair of slitted eyes. It was a snake made of liquid.

Mabel stared into the eyes of this eerily pretty creature. She tapped the tendril with her finger, sending a rippled down its spine which radiated out through the whole lake. “So cool,” she said, starting to feel some of the awe that Mason and Pacifica did.

Then the water rumbled. The serenity of the moment was shattered in the next instant. Multiple more tendrils began blasting out of the lake like water out of a bursting fire hydrant. Several surrounded Mabel, and despite being made of liquid, managed to entrap her in its folds. The initial tendril began swirling and snarling. The edges of the neck began to shoot water outwards, the white spray forming a crown of feathers.

Mason realised that _this_ was Kukulkan, the Maya’s god made real. “Oh no, we’ve gotta get her out of there!” He ran towards the twisting snakes, punching at one of the closer ones. His fist simply passed through, like punching a hose spray.

Across the lake there was a sudden burst of heat. Pacifica saw that Mabel was using her flamethrower attachment on her gauntlet, trying to burn her way out of the water web. It was fire versus water, but the ferocious maelstrom being swept up from the centre of the cenote seemed to be winning for now.

More of the snake heads gained full forms, a small army of gathered feathered serpents, all grinning in anticipation of devouring their latest catch. This Hydro Hydra thrashed about towards the land now, hitting the couple with a fine mist of spray. When the mist cleared, they saw Mabel climbing up the shaft with her grappling hook.

The first snake that had appeared now grew wings and flew up after her. The intertwining bodies of the snakes flowed over one another, so they didn’t tangle in their upwards pursuit. Mason’s gaze was drawn upwards to watch the chase. But Pacifica looked down at the lake. With the snakes stretching themselves upwards, the edge of the lake had been drained slightly.

By the edge of the water a stone altar had been exposed to the sun. She knelt close to it, feeling her pendant spin once more near its presence. “Mason, help me here!”

“Woah, what is it? There’s words here, what do they say?”

“How should I know; do I look like I can read ancient Mayan to you?” She scanned the stonework, looking for any abnormalities. Which was a faintly ridiculous concept when dealing with a giant water snake god. Everything was pretty abnormal already.

Mason flicked through his notes, before settling on something. “There, top left, there’s a small carving of two figures!”

Pacifica found the pair, whose hands were linked. She pressed down on the symbol, which clicked satisfyingly. The many writhing heads of water stopped dead. She jabbed a victorious finger skywards. “Ha, that’s what you get for overextending yourself!”

She paled as the water, no longer animated by anything, fell down as one large mass. Mason and Pacifica tried to get away but couldn’t avoid being hit by the massive splash as the lake’s water level returned to normal.

Soaking wet, they watched Mabel slowly descend on her rope. “You guys did it! Somehow! What did you find?”

Mason stuck his hand in the water, which now covered the altar again. He pressed on a central symbol, a coiled snake, which then moved out with a click. As he brought it up, Pacifica’s pendant span wildly. “This is it. Looks like some kind of magically infused stela. I might be able to make it work for us.”

“That’s hardly gonna help with building the portal is it,” Pacifica sighed. “No sign of anything that caused my visions either, this site’s long been abandoned by any real intelligence.”

Mabel finally touched the ground. “What a rip-off, I didn’t get to see the future at all either! What was that symbol you pressed to pull the plug, Dip?”

Mason blushed slightly. “Oh, it was a pair of mythological figures in the Mayan mythology. The… heroic twins.”

Neither Mabel nor Pacifica could resist grinning at that. They may not have found any clues to the big mysteries facing them or made any progress towards the far-off goal of constructing the portal. But it was a start at least, a return to the old lives they used to have.

Their adventure had finally begun for real.


	7. The Circle

“Well it’s hardly Stonehenge, I’ll say that. I think this stone just about comes up to my… ankle. Wow.” Mabel laid on the ground, putting her head at the same level as the stones’ height. There were nine in total, arranged in a simple circle. “Maybe this is impressive for ants?”

“Don’t get too close to the stones Mabel, we don’t want English Heritage clamping down on us the next time a hill-walker comes to visit.” Mason was nose-deep in Journal 7, holding the book in one hand and a boxy scanner in the other, while occasionally looking up at the stone circle. “It’s a bronze age site, you really wanna risk damaging something that old?”

“Old schmold, this is way less interesting than the Mayan sites. I told you we should’ve taken that different flight back in Mexico City. We could be lying on a beach in the Mediterranean right now Dip!”

“This place is supposedly magic, at least according to my basic readings.” He shook the scanner, which beeped a little. “Though I’m not picking up much now at any rate. Hey Pacifica, tell me if you see anything unusual, I’m gonna do another sweep.”

Pacifica waved at him without looking over from across the clearing. “Sure Mace, whatever.”

“Watcha lookin’ at Paz?” Bored by Mason’s methodical scanning, Mabel bounded over to where Pacifica stood with her arms crossed. 

“Oh, just… observing.” She gestured at Mason, who was completely absorbed in his work. “There’s something so cute about him when he gets involved. His mind shuts out everything else and he becomes stuck in one mindset. I bet you in five seconds he’s gonna- oh, oh yes!” Mason had started chewing the end of a pen. “Your brother isn’t predictable at all, is he?”

Mabel linked arms with Pacifica. “Aw, it’s nice how you’re both still so happy together. Luck in love has never hit me yet. Too busy for that kinda thing.”

“Only downside to Mace right now is that he’s so focused that he hasn’t actually told us anything about why we’re here. I just wanna know what’s so special about these dumb rocks. Maybe I should borrow his journal.”

“Forget the journal sis, there’s a little sign over here at the edge of the woods.” Mabel bent down to read the information, but had to reach into her jacket for a pair of reading glasses. She could make out an artwork on the sign though, showing a night-time scene with several ghostly blue figures milling around the stones.

As Mabel slowly looked over the text, Pacifica read it aloud for Mason’s benefit. “Each of the stones represents a woman who was punished for dancing on a Sunday. Bit of a harsh penalty. And it says this boulder just here,” she pointed to a flat rock that stood slightly apart from the other stones, “is the king stone. The legends say that he was a fiddle player, who’s supposed to come back to life once a year and play for the women. There’s some stuff about a quarry project here too.”

“Ooh, I know about that, I looked that up when Dipper told us where we were coming! Back about 25 years ago there were plans to build a quarry, right down that hill! It would have been a disaster, totally ruining the natural landscape. The locals didn’t put up with it though, they campaigned against it. Some even built tree-houses near the stones to keep watch, isn’t that so cool! If I’d been around I’d have loved to join them.”

“That’s so you, May,” Pacifica replied, grinning.

“Yeah, Mabel throwing herself into random fights she knows nothing about, sounds just like her,” Mason sneered dismissively as he walked over. “There’s nothing on the current scan - if there is something here it’s probably too mystical for my scientific approach. I’ll need to rethink. In the meantime, can we all please _try_ not to do anything irresponsible for once? We came close last time. Mabel, your recklessness in the cenote-“

Mabel cut him off. “I was fine, Dip, nothing I haven’t done before. We always beat the odds. It’s tied to our fate. I think it’s something in our Ka, we’re blessed with good luck.”

Mason slammed Journal 7 shut. "There's no such thing as Ka, or chi, or soul energy. It's all made up woo."

"Dipper, when you were 12 you fought a space triangle for the fate of the universe, kindly get some perspective."

"I just like to be rational. I witnessed said triangle myself, therefore I know it's real."

"Ah, but the only true reality we can cling to is our own minds!"

Pacifica rested her face in her hands. "Ugh, you two are insufferable when you're like this. Can’t we agree to no more fighting on Mystery Hunts. Fight back at our room, where I can just stick on some music and ignore you two for a while."

Mabel gathered up her backpack. “Alright, alright. It’ll be good to get out of this chilly air.” The sepia leaves of the surrounding trees showed the long shadow of winter already hanging over the peaks and valleys of Derbyshire. “Let’s go back down to Grunkleton-”

“_Stan_ton!” Mason snapped. “The town’s name is _Stan_ton!” He forced himself to breathe, not wanting to get wound up again by his sister’s in-jokes. “Fine, whatever, we’re done for today.”

“Good.” Pacifica took her husband’s hand, trying to soothe his anger. It seemed to work, as she felt his muscles untense. She didn’t know how long things could last this way, with Mason flying off the handle at every little thing Mabel did, and with Mabel herself seemingly indifferent (which only made Mason even more angry). 

Trying to focus on the here and now, she leant in to kiss Mason, and he smiled warmly afterwards. Maybe it would just take a light touch to get through their quest?

Then Mabel stuck her head between them. “Aw, so sweet! Now I say, back to The Wasp and Squirrel for a pint of ale and some bants! Down the apple and pears, what what!” Her attempt at a cockney accent was what could charitably described as ‘inaccurate’. Again, Mason’s hand clung onto his wife’s with a vice-like grip.

Pacifica certainly had her work cut out for her with these twins.

* * *

The trio retreated to the quiet village of Stanton, laid out on the hill below the circle. They had rooms booked in the local village pub. While Mason and Pacifica attempted to decipher any clues they could find about the Nine Ladies, Mabel availed herself of the plentiful classic British grub downstairs.

Mason had found a local guidebook to the area and was trying to use what little knowledge it contained to bolster his own. “Stanton Moor is known for several megalithic sites, yadda yadda, Nine Ladies, the Cork Stone… hmm, good hiking country around here. That word though: Moor. Nothing good ever happened on a moor.”

Pacifica had learnt to ignore his ‘research rambling’ over the years and focused on her own study. While Mason’s Journal 7 was stuffed with relevant information, her own writing simply chronicled her recent thoughts and emotions. She was still troubled with the way the Pines twins were handling themselves. While they were intensely petty with each other, embarrassing wasn’t the right word. More like deeply saddening, to see such old friends argue about trivialities.

She fiddled with her pink bookmark tassel while trying to think of some way to fix their smouldering relationship. For now at least both twins still trusted in Pacifica herself, almost instinctively. It surprised her to realise how much they looked up to her. It was a reversal from the old days, when she’d looked up to the twins immensely, seeing them as a gateway to freedom from her terrible home life. Weird that they now thought of _her_ as the reliably sensible one.

Maybe she could use that somehow? She went down to the bar to get a quick drink, to think things over properly.

When she came back up she found Mason looking excitedly down at Journal 7. “Paz, come over here, I think I’ve found something. I think the stones might be triggered by a harmonic rhythm.”

“Really? I thought you said earlier they were all inert, lumps of useless stone?”

“Ah, these sorts of hauntings are usually pretty subdued. The unique energy signatures I can detect likely only show up during brief periods. Besides, I think it’s time I stopped using a technical method and started trying something more mystical.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan. Let’s go, now.”

“What, right now? But it’s dark out. And I don’t think I can stand any more time with Mabel this evening, especially not if she’s drunk.”

She sat down on his bed and folded her arms, then spoke with an air of authority. “I just think that we should get this over with. It’s clear with how you’ve been acting around Mabel that things aren’t working out. We should try going it alone tonight.”

“Woah, really? After all we’ve gone through to get her on our side? She’s been helpful too, there are skills she has that we lack. She told us about that new portal component showing up on her black market whisperings just the other day, that’s invaluable knowledge.”

“Yeah, but it’s no good if you’re gonna end up killing each other before we get there, is it?”

She had a point. Mason wasn’t sure how long he could stand his sister’s presence. “Maybe you’re right. What harm could it do, not like we need her help to investigate some small rocks anyway.”

“That’s the idea Mace.” She pecked his cheek and headed over to open the bedroom window. “Haven’t climbed out a window in some time. It’s like when I used to sneak out from my parents to see you.”

He grinned, remembering those more innocent teenage years. “Some things never change.” He hopped out the window and started the short trek up towards the circle.

“Yeah, some things…”

The Nine Ladies were just as lifeless as they’d been in the daylight. The only difference now was that in the low light levels they’d been promoted from ‘mildly interesting landmark’ to ‘potential trip hazard’. The couple wrapped up in warm jackets to shield from the cold night air.

Mason shone a flashlight at the stones, then nodded. “Yeah, as I thought. The stones do conform to a standard tonal pattern. With the right resonance I’ll have them singing to my tune,” he said confidently.

“Uh huh, I’ll believe it when I see it. I just hope we can solve this quickly and get back out of the cold.” She took the torch as he set up an app on his phone to deliver the required tone.

“From the size of the stones I’ve calculated the perfect sound to resonate all of them at once. Watch this, Princess!”

Pacifica couldn’t help but giggle at the smugness Mason usually showed when bragging about solving mysteries. It was adorable how confident he could get in the right context. Placing his phone at the centre of the circle, Mason retreated quickly to avoid muffling any of the sound.

A few seconds passed, then the phone buzzed. A low note, deep and thrumming rang out. It echoed off the nine stones, increasing in volume as it did. The pitch rose too, until the sound ended in a dramatic crescendo like a trumpet call. Then there was silence again.

“That it, Mace? That was certainly some performance,” she said, dryly.

“Wait just a minute, there’s usually some delay in this kind of effect.”

“Maybe you need to play your tuba at them. Well, I suppose when it does work then we can say we did all this without Mabel after all.”

“Yeah, we showed her. She’s out of her depth with this stuff anyway, she should stick to messing up her own problems. We don’t need her.”

Icily, Pacifica responded. “Uh huh. You also ‘did this’ without me either.”

“Huh, what do you mean? You’re here, aren’t you?”

“And what did I do to help with your musical stones? Nothing, that’s what. So should I go back home and let you sort out all the big bad problems, Mr Pines?”

“Don’t be like that,” Mason said, hurt by her words. “I didn’t mean that I don’t want you around. It’s just that Mabel-“

“That Mabel drives you up the wall; I’ve seen the way you two act. Whatever happened to ‘Mystery Twins for life’?”

“Mabel chose a different life. One I couldn’t be a part of anymore.”

“Then maybe it’s time you both tried to have _new_ lives. Lives where you put aside your differences.”

“I wish it were that easy Paz, but she’ll never understand how she makes me feel-“

“Oh, I very much doubt that. You and her both feel _exactly_ the same way. You might be distancing yourselves, but deep down inside you both crave what you’ve lost.”

Before Pacifica could try and further explain Mabel’s side of the dispute, the air around them suddenly dropped a few degrees in temperature, which was impressive given how cold it had already been before. Pacifica’s pendant span gently, signifying the change. Wrapped in a blanket of ice, Mason and Pacifica huddled together, gloved hands entwined.

Each of the nine stones was overcome with a soft blue glow. The flashlight was no longer necessary to see the curious events. Rising up out of the soil came nine pale figures. Each one was clearly female, dressed in simple fur clothing. After the manic chaos of the water snake back in Mexico, this was a much more serene sight.

Mason straightened up and addressed the closest ghost, who was a middle aged woman with long hair that draped over her chest. “Greetings travellers, my wife and I come in peace! Let’s see, bronze age - Dear, um, buxom wench, thou hast been summoned by mine spell, please explain thine presence upon our mortal coil, lest ye-

“We can speak normally you know.” The ghost rolled her eyes.

“Uh, right, got it. So, who are you guys?”

“Um, duh Mace, they’re the dancing women,” Pacifica said, remembering the information placard. “These must be the Nine Ladies of legend, isn’t it obvious. No King ghost though.” She turned to the nearby woman. “So, you’re the ones who danced on a Sunday, is that it? I still don’t get that, what’s so bad about dancing that you got cursed?”

“Oh, we certainly ‘danced’,” the woman said with suggestive wink and a look to her companions, who all giggled.

“Oh, oh!” Mason gasped, then started blushing. “You’re that kind of ghost. The kinky kind.”

“Woah woah, hold the phone!” Pacifica choked. “You were some kind of sex cult?!”

The woman shrugged. “Is it any wonder we were cursed? We were _ever_ so naughty!” Another round of tittering from the ladies.

Now both Mason and Pacifica were blushing, a heat burning in their cheeks that blasted out against the freezing air. The ghosts started frolicking around, happy to have been summoned back into the world. Mason coughed and tried to regain some control of the situation. “So, you were cursed. Care to explain how that worked? There must be something out of the ordinary around here that caused it.”

The woman was still smiling with a seductive glare. “Oh yeah, there was certainly something. You there, blonde girl?”

“I’m Pacifica. Why do you want me?”

“To see the magic, a female is needed. We’re not the Nine Men after all, are we?” 

Pacifica shrugged and walked forwards. “What do I do then, is there a spell or chant or something?”

“Place your hand on my stone, just here.” She pointed to the still glowing rock at her feet. 

Pacifica looked back to Mason, who smiled. “Go on Paz, we can show Mabel how we do things.”

“Like this then?” She cupped both palms around the top of the stone. “Nothing’s happening. Is there something else I need to- aggh!” She cried out in pain and doubled over.

“Paz!” Mason rushed forwards but stopped as the ground encircled by the stones glowed blue like the rocks themselves. He now noticed that none of the spirits had left the circle, as if they were bound within.

Except for one, the one who they’d been talking to. She gingerly stepped beyond the circle’s bounds, standing above Pacifica. She laughed curtly, then dissolved away.

Mason called out. “Pacifica? Are you alright?”

Pacifica turned to him with closed eyes. Then they shot open. “She’s gone laddie! It’s only me now!” Here pupils were completely black.

Mason’s survival instincts took over as he analysed the immediate threat. “Possession - you’ve taken Paz’s body to freely leave your prison! Give her back to me now!”

“Nah, I won’t be doing that. You may be a mere man, bearded one, but you’ll still make a fine vessel for one of us!” As Pacifica lumbered unsteadily towards him, the eight ghostly figures seemed to rise up behind her, a vanguard of their leader’s new form.

“No no no!” He rifled through the journal looking for salvation. The ghosts were almost upon him and he could only stare in horror at Pacifica’s blank expression. “Oh my god. I’m gonna get killed by a group of lesbian witch ghosts!”

A loud bang broke the quiet of the woods, alongside a quick flash from behind. The ghosts instantly screeched and fell back within the circle. Mason pivoted to where the noise had come from. He detected a faint smoky smell and saw the barrel of a shotgun poking out of the trees. He could already guess who was carrying it as she brushed into the clearing.

“Dipper! What on earth are you doing here!?” Mabel lowered the gun, but kept it held tightly in her hands.

“I could ask you the exact same! How did you know we’d be up here?!”

“I didn’t! I swear, I didn’t even plan to come here! Is Pacifica alright?”

Mason looked back at his wife, realising now that Mabel hadn’t actually shot her. The bright flash and noise had merely scared off the spirits. “She’s gonna be ok, I hope. We just have to exorcise her. What have you been doing, why are you even out of the pub?”

“Well, I was sitting in the bar, trying some ‘fish and chips’, when- watch out!” Mason covered his ears as she fired off another quick shot. The ghosts had started to approach again while his back was turned. Mabel continued as if she’d never been interrupted. “Anyway, I was thinking about the stone circle, when Paz came down and told me I should go investigate it myself, to forget about you and all the things you were making me feel.”

“Wait, she told you come out here on your own? She told me the same thing. Nevermind, so where did you go?”

“I thought the stones themselves were a bust, so I decided to try out the quarry, the one that the locals got to close down. Turns out that the miners there unearthed something.” Mabel unslung a shoulder bag and removed a small item. It looked to Mason like a hunk of meat. He jumped back when it started moving, pulsing in and out like a twisted heartbeat.

“What is that thing?! It’s hideous!”

“I know, isn’t it cool! I think it’s something to do with the king stone, see, these fine ladies aren’t the only things haunting Stanton Moor. I was chased up here by another one.”

At that moment Mabel’s pursuer burst through the trees. The 3ft tall creature lumbered awkwardly on two legs. Its rugged green skin was like that of a frog or toad’s, and it was slimy with mucus. “At last my vigil is restored, afore the dancers break the cord.”

Surprising Mason, it spoke quite eloquently despite appearing to be nothing more than a swamp monster. He noticed that the creature’s skull was pulsing in time with the organ Mabel had found. He had to scramble to catch the same organ when Mabel tossed it to him and raised her gun.

“Good thing I borrowed the bartender’s shotgun, eh. Alright slimy, hands up!”

He raised his hands but pleaded with Mabel. “What vexations these troublesome obstacles, I only aim to reapply the manacles. Mine quest is noble, tree-like ones, do not delay my passage on.”

“I’m warning you, back off!” She aimed down the barrel, but Mason held up a hand.

“Wait, if he’s connected to the king stone, he might be able to help.” He opened Journal 7 again. “I think he’s the ‘fiddler’, the one who’s supposed to play for the ladies!”

“He doesn’t look like much of a king to me,” Mabel muttered out of the side of her mouth. “More like something that crawled out of a bog. He’s not exactly a match for King Charles the Third now, is he? You know, I never could have it in me to hate the monarchy, they’re just too damn interesting. I can’t resist all that tacky royalty souvenir stuff.”

While Mabel rambled, the creature pointed a bony finger at the king stone itself now. ”The heart must lie on tender turf, to heal the land and still the earth.”

“Hey, I think what poetry boy is trying to say is that he needs to have that organ thing reconnected with the stone to stop the ghosts! Then again, the ghosts lied to me to, but it’s the best chance we’ve got.”

Mabel was thinking it over, then smiled a little. “Alright, worth a try, let’s go-“ She was grabbed on the shoulders suddenly from behind. Pacifica forced Mabel down onto her knees, but Mabel was too prepared for an attack and flipped her over. More of the ghosts swirled around behind their fallen leader, able to temporarily leave the circle if they clustered close to Pacifica’s body.

Mason grabbed Mabel’s shotgun from where she’d dropped it, then fired at the mass of blue ghosts, careful not to hit Pacifica herself. His shoulders shuddered from the recoil, but his shot did the trick. The spirits scattered. Pacifica also fell back as if stunned.

Wasting no time, he pulled Mabel up and passed her the gun. “Cover me! I’m gonna make a run for the stone!”

She nodded quickly and took aim. The ghosts swirled round and round like single flowing body. This just made them an easier target for Mabel’s blasts. Mason bolted towards the king stone, passing through the circle prison. 

The ‘king’ himself just watched amusedly from the edge of the forest. “The daring act of a true team, outshines the hunger of desperate fiends.”

“That didn’t even rhyme!” Mason shouted. He had to duck as the ghostly mass swung out at him. Another blast struck right above his head, deafeningly loud but it did the trick. He now had a clear approach to the boulder. He triumphantly placed down the throbbing organ as if he’d just scored a touchdown. The king was instantly standing right above him, having moved across the clearing in a flash. “Huzzah, the deed is finally done, our noble goal today is won!”

He conjured a fiddle and string from the air, then began playing. It was horribly scratchy and painful to listen to. Thankfully the ghosts had the same reaction. They broke apart into individuals again, retreating to each of their stones.

Mabel, who’d been fending off Pacifica from trying to steal the shotgun, felt the fight go out of her friend. The ghost of the woman was ejected out of Pacifica, leaving Mabel to catch her limp body.

The ghosts cried out into the night! “Not that awful racket again! No! Anything but that!”

The king chuckled cheerily. “Now to sleep my dear old friends, do not wake until the end.”

This cued a lot of grumbling and moaning from the disquieted spirits, rather like a bunch of kids being told it was past their bedtime. They each descended back into their stones. The blue glow that had permeated the clearing finally died away.

“You did it!” Pacifica was already back on her feet, smiling widely. “I knew that was all it would take! Uh, who’s the frog-man with the violin?”

“The sleeping one awakes at last, no longer dreaming of the past, heh heh!”

“Ok… I’ve seen stranger stuff. I think.” The king grinned knowingly, then started tuning his instrument.

Both twins came over to check on Pacifica. “Are you ok Paz? Did my shotgunning hurt you at all?”

“Are there any traces of possession? Do you feel like yourself again?.”

“Guys, I feel fine, don’t fuss. In fact, I’m better than alright!” The twins looked cluelessly back at her. “You two solved the mystery, together!”

Both of them started protesting “We weren’t together!

“In fact we were apart! We both went separately cause you told us to!”

“But look how it worked out. It took both of you! Mason to have his theory about the stones, and Mabel to know about the quarry! Different skills and interests lead to different solutions. Can’t you guys see that? While I was possessed I could still see, you know. You two seemed like naturals with the way you teamed up to save me.”

She did have a point, and both twins stood awkwardly rubbing their necks. Both them begrudgingly spoke at the same time. 

“Thanks. No, thank _you_! Stop that!”

Pacifica burst out laughing. “You two are such of pair of dorks sometimes. So, what did we get for our troubles tonight anyway?”

Mason showed her the still pulsing organ. “I think it’s related to the harmonic resonances of the stones. Somehow. Might be useful to keep, universal resonances are a vital part of the portal.” He looked back to see if king was fine with them taking his ‘heart’, but the creature had vanished.

He packed Journal 7 and the organ away. “I think it’s time we stopped prevaricating. No more random magic excursions. If we’re really going do this - really going to build a portal - then we need to work on getting the parts. So, Mabel,” he turned to his sister and warmly smiled. “What’s your best lead?”

Mabel smiled back. “I think you’re gonna like this. My sources say that our best chance of snagging some high tech pieces will be at an auction. In a lovely little city, don’t know if you’ve heard of it. How does a trip to Venice sound?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stanton and the Nine Ladies are both real locations, which I actually visited back in February of this year. I thought since I was doing a ‘world tour’, that it would make sense to have at least a few locations I personally knew :)
> 
> The Wasp and Squirrel isn’t actually the name of Stanton’s pub though (that would be The Flying Childers), that name’s just a private in-joke :P


	8. The Floating Palace

Rain had come to the Venetian lagoon. In the early evening light the canals sparkled and shimmered, reflecting the streetlights at unusual angles and creating whorls of colour. The streets themselves were covered in deep puddles. Every day brought more water from the sky, and more and more of the city was enduring the same damp existence.

“I can’t believe it! Of all the times to come to Venice, we come when it’s tipping it down!” Mabel had her arms crossed by the window of the small apartment, resentfully looking out a rain covered window. “It’s just not fair, when you guys came for your honeymoon it was gorgeous sunshine!”

Mason came over to sit beside his sister. “This is Venice on a _dry_ day, sis. The weather’s been getting considerably worse since me and Paz visited. Oh man, but it was glorious back then, so hot.”

“Hff, I wish it was hot. Stupid climate change has gone backwards here! Earth to Venice, it’s supposed to be a floating city, not a half drowned city!”

“They’re talking about building flood barriers to hold back the sea. No idea how effective that’ll be though. Anyway, it’s not like you’ll be going out in the rain. Tonight’s just a me and Pacifica affair.”

Pacifica was currently in the shower, preparing for their evening ahead. Mason was half-looking forward to tonight, a chance to finally acquire another component for the portal was tantalising – but the event itself would probably prove a drag.

He could hear the sound of a low moan increasing in volume and rolled his eyes playfully. “Yes Mabel, I can hear you groaning with boredom already. No, I don’t care.”

“Grr, but Dipper, I’ve got nothing to do!”

“Here, have this.” He reached into Pacifica’s bag and brought out a battered paperback. “Paz brought it to keep her occupied on the journey, I think she finished it already though. Just read a book and wait here, that’s all I ask.”

She took the book and studied it curiously. “At least it’s better than waiting on the boat for days on end. That thing felt kinda haunted, like we weren’t the proper owners.”

“You’re too easily spooked, it’s just an old boat with a lot of leaks, not a cursed pirate vessel. Y’know, I wish we could trade places tonight, I really do.”

Pacifica finally stepped out of the bathroom. “Nuh uh mister, you and I have a date. Now get ready, we have to look our best, dear.” She was wearing an elegant floor length dress, straight and simple, with no unnecessary frills. The dress appeared black at first glance, but a closer look revealed that it was in fact a striking midnight-blue. Her hair was pulled back into a long ponytail. “And for this you’re finally gonna have to get rid of that _thing_ on your face.

Mabel, who’d already started reading Paz’s novel, chuckled at this. Mason sighed and picked up his razor. “For you Paz, I’d do anything. For a portal component even more so.”

* * *

The couple took a private gondola across the city. Though Pacifica wanted to sit back and enjoy the shimmering lights and quality Italian architecture, her husband was making that difficult. “Will you just settle down, you don’t have to keep tugging at the collar every five minutes.”

“Easy for you to say, that dress barely even has a neck! Couldn’t we have just _stolen_ the component like Mabel suggested?”

“Don’t be such a baby Mace, it’s just a formal auction. We go in, act our best, find the component and do this the easy way. My parents’ money should be more than enough for our needs.” Despite her reassurances, he still fiddled with his neck. “Oh, give me that.” She started straightening his collar. “15 years, Mason Pines, and I’m still making sure you look good at parties.”

“I don’t see what all the fuss is about anyway. To me ‘fancy’ clothes just means clothes that aren’t comfy to wear!”

“It’s about appearances Mace. If we show ourselves off to these people as symbols of elegance, we’ll be into their confidences in no time. That’s why Mabel can’t come. No offence to her, but she has absolutely zero sense of class.”

“I think some of the attendees might recognise her too, it’s quite an international turnout.” He thought to himself that if the varied guests showing up knew that May Pines, troublemaker extraordinaire was attending they’d have a lot more on their plate to deal with.

“These invites she got us are top quality though, if I didn’t know they were fake I’d surely think they were genuine. And be nice to her, we’d have never heard about the auction if it wasn’t for her contacts on the black market.” She finished adjusting his tie, then brushed back his hair. He had his hair combed back for once, revealing his constellation birthmark. Pacifica liked seeing it, there was an air of confidence that radiated from Mason whenever it was visible, that he was unafraid of what people would think of it. With his shaved beard his chin was only left with a neatly trimmed goatee. Overall he looked almost as professional as she did. Perfect appearances.

“So Venice, what do you think of it after all these years?” Mason had turned his attention to the flooded streets, buildings that looked like giant rafts hovering on the surface.

“It’s sad in a way, seeing this decay. Almost makes me wanna start up a protest and jump in with Mabel, ha.” She put her arm around Mason, then leant back in the gondola. “Still, there’s one thing that hasn’t changed.”

“What’s that?”

She leant up and kissed him. “Us.”

* * *

Just adjacent to the famous Basilica of St. Mark with its huge domes, the Palazzo Ducale was the ceremonial seat of the Venetian government. In the past, it was the home of the Doge and a meeting place for the Council of Ten. The ball being hosted tonight was the most prestigious gathering in some centuries, with visitors including diplomats, the richest people in Europe, and heads of major companies like, the Fumetsu Company, or Re-Gen Corp.

Now, two more visitors had been quietly added to the guest list. Mason and Pacifica _Northwest_ handed over their invitations. Gaining entry was akin to passing through an airport. They were x-rayed and their pockets emptied of any electrical devices. Their invites accepted, they entered into the lush ballroom where the auction was to be held.

Mason studied the guests uneasily. This wasn’t his kind of place to be, all the wealth and glamour and fine suits. “I hate that we have to use that name: Northwest. It makes me uncomfortable.”

“The Northwest name has a cultural cachet that’s still relevant, I might as well use my heritage for some good from time to time.”

“Yeah, well it’s still annoying. I don’t belong here.” He sighed. “But for you, I’ll make an effort. Shall we, I dunno, mingle? It’s been years since I’ve done anything like this.”

“Just follow my lead dork,” she said with a smirk. “Try not to embarrass yourself too much.” She led him over to the a long table set out with appetizers. She politely ate a few, while Mason only looked down at the caviar and shrimp on offer in disgust.

“Great, most of this is non-veggie too.” He grabbed a piece of lettuce, that he was sure was partly just decorative, and munched on it like disgruntled rabbit. Pacifica chuckled – she might be comfortable in this milieu but seeing her husband’s attempts to fit in almost made her relax. It reminded her of their different upbringings, and how they’d both changed each other for the better.

Finally there was the sound of a woman tapping a microphone. “Ahem, the auction will be beginning in five minutes, grazie."

Pacifica sauntered over the front of the crowd, aiming to put herself at the centre of things. It was a common tactic to win people over, a show of confidence. Mason just felt exposed at the front of the throng. Any one of these people could have bought and sold the entire Mystery Shack for a pittance of their true wealth.

The babble of foreign languages ceased as a woman in elaborate finery, like an outfit out of the renaissance, came out onto a small wooden stage. “Buongiorno, benvenuto. You have all come tonight to bid on the rarest items in our archive. Ancient relics dredged up from the canal, treasures of the 16th century, even our small collection of original clothes such as the kind I wear now. I have a quick word of warning to note before we can begin though.”

The hairs on Mason’s neck jumped up. This smelled like trouble.

“Originally we were going to offer a selection of items from the Ca' Foscari University, but due to a security breach we discovered last night, these items have been moved to secure storage. Spiacente, we apologise for any inconvenience.”

“Oh, what a shame,” a British sounding man with short black hair from the crowd called out. “I was hoping to get lucky. Still, this fine champagne is worth the price of admission at least.” 

There was some sympathetic laughter from the guests. Pacifica took note of the man. There was an air of confidence she could read a mile away, like this setback was nothing in his way. She’d have to watch him carefully.

Mason wasn’t paying any attention to that; he was still reeling from the change of plans. In a whisper he muttered to Pacifica. “Great, they aren’t auctioning the components we need. Now what?”

“Relax genius, we just move to plan B.”

“But I thought-“

“If needs must,” she said while grimacing. “What are the odds we can steal the damn piece we’re after?”

“Without our ‘master thief’ it’s hard to say. I don’t have any equipment, but this place seems kinda archaic. It might not be too tricky a lock to break.”

“Sounds like a plan. You excuse yourself, I’ll mingle and keep the guests occupied so that nobody notices you snooping about. Got your earpiece?” Mason tapped his ear and nodded. No one had thought to scan that high up. “I’ll try and find where the secure room is, then we’ll plan a rendezvous.”

“Right, and what do we do about smuggling- mmph!” Pacifica grabbed him into a kiss as a passing waiter came near. While their lips were locked together she gestured to the door with her eyes. He nodded, then they broke the kiss. “Love you Pacifica.”

“Come back quickly dear, you wouldn’t want to miss the whole party.”

Mason inconspicuously sidled towards the inner door leading to the rest of the palazzo’s chambers. His ‘Mystery Hunt’ confidence seemed to take over, and he stealthily exited without being seen.

Turning her attention back to the main floor, the auction had finally begun. People were bidding on an old manuscript of some sort from the 1500s, nothing of interest to her. She noticed that she wasn’t the only disinterested party in the room. The suave British man who’d spoken out was studying the crowd instead. There was definitely something going on with him.

Time for Pacifica to work her Northwest charms. She made sure to be noticed out of the corner of the man’s eye as she made her way over to him. “So, quite a lavish party they’ve put together. Of course, I’ve seen richer…”

The man appreciated her jovial introduction. “Ha, I’ll wager some of these people aren’t fit to shine my shoes.” Pacifica inwardly took offense to this perceived slight against her husband, who she knew could never truly fit in amongst this place. “Where are my manners, Gabriel Crane.” He held out his hand and Pacifica gave it a light shake.

“Pacifica Northwest. Charmed.”

“Ah, the architect! I thought I recognised your appearance from somewhere. You designed the new Bank of England Tower, in London?“

“Yes, yes!” Pacifica was surprised to have found someone who knew her work, especially so far from home. “Though, that was one of my earlier works, quite sloppy by my current standards. So, Mr Crane, what is it that you deal in? Business, technology?”

“Power, my dear. I am what some would derogatorily describe as a death dealer.”

“Ah, an arms merchant. You sell weapons.”

“To the good guys, of course.”

“And who might those be? So often the lines are blurred these days.”

“Touché Miss Northwest. Or is it, Mrs Pines? I did believe you’d changed your name.”

Pacifica suddenly felt very uncomfortable with the way this was going. There was something about this Gabriel Crane that put her on edge, almost subconsciously. Like his suit was just a little too neat, or his skin a tad too smooth. He was grinning conciliatorily, but it was the opposite of reassuring.

“I keep my home life private, thank you very much. Why come to Venice then, Crane? Here to buy a work of art, or are you really into Italian fashion?”

“I see your game Mrs Pines. Very well. I was here for one of the items on the university’s lot, but it seems they’ve pulled out. A true disappointment really, I had my eye on quite a rare piece.”

“To aid in your weapons development?”

“Something like that.” Crane stared into his champagne, watching the liquid swirl. “As for you, I sense a similar missed opportunity.” He gave her a sideways glance with his cold eyes. “Are you and I after the same prize? It would have been ever so dismal if we’d had to have fought on opposite sides, so to speak.”

“Is everything a metaphor for war in your eyes?” She judged his reaction, guarded, with only a hint of hostility. “I’m after a similar item, yes. It’s a prestige piece, you understand. My husband does so love to play with his toys.”

“Oh, I bet.” He took another sip, then waved his hand around the room. “What do you make of this building, eh? Construction started in 1340, a home for one of the most powerful men in the world. Now here we are, in some ways equally powerful. Standing in history.”

“Yes, I know. I studied Palazzos like this one at university. Venice has quite a mix of styles, some of the reliefs on the front of the building were looted all the way from Constantinople.” It was rare that Pacifica got to talk about her work with anyone knowledgeable enough in the subject. She saw an advantage she could leverage. “I’d love a tour of the building, but it seems that the upper floors are closed off. Particularly their secure archive, I’d wager there are some rare sights held within.”

Crane, who’d finished his drink, nodded. It was an almost robotic motion. “Me too, a shame to come all this way and not sample the full culture. I hear they keep the really important stuff near the Corner Room. That would be a particular highlight.”

On the stage a new auction was starting up. Pacifica saw her cue and curtsied. “If I may take my leave Mr Crane. I’ve been kept from my business long enough. A fair evening to you.”

He lifted his empty glass and toasted. “To your health.”

Pacifica made her way quickly through the crowd. Before she passed out of Crane’s sight, she looked back. He was still staring at her with a piercing gaze. He knew far more than he was letting on. Once on the other side of the ballroom, Pacifica discreetly pushed her hair back and turned on her earpiece. She quietly muttered to herself. “Mason, I hope you can do this quickly. I don’t wanna spend a minute longer than I have to here.”

* * *

The lush corridors of the palazzo were mostly empty. The ballroom commanded the attention of most of the staff, giving Mason the run of the upper floors. A burst of static buzzed in his ear. “Mace, got a lead, you need to find the Corner Room.”

“Why, you think the archive’s hidden in there?

“Just a hunch, trust me. Radio once you’ve got the item then we’ll blow this dump. It’s reminding me too much of the old parties at the mansion.”

“Roger, we’ll maintain radio silence until then, unless something goes wrong.”

Now that he was away from the party, he couldn’t resist loosening his carefully neatened tie. Pacifica would probably kill him later if she saw him in this state, but he was just grateful to be able to breathe properly again.

The Corner Room wasn’t actually in the corner of the building. It was named after the various paintings of one of the doges laid out inside, paintings of one Giovanni Corner. The room was modestly furnished, meant only as a private room for use of the doge. The only interesting feature was a marble fireplace, with a frieze of angels riding dolphins. St. Mark’s Lion, the symbol of Venice, was the centrepiece of the frieze.

Mason immediately went straight to examine the lion. It would be on the nose to hide something inside such an obvious object. But, he mused, as he found a small concealed button in the lion’s mane, that sometimes the most obvious option wasn’t always wrong.

One of the paintings slid up into the wall and an alcove beyond revealed a short passageway. He was inwardly overjoyed. Finding a centuries old hidden passage in an Italian palace was pretty high on the list of awesome things he’d done in his life. The passage led to a room with stark white walls and no decoration to speak of. On the opposite wall was a heavy metal door. He removed his black evening jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves. Trying the door, he found it locked shut.

It was at this point that Mason missed his sister’s skills with lockpicking and infiltration. The door’s lock was like a safe, with a combination wheel. There was no time to try cracking it by hand, and in any case he lacked the skill to do so.

He noticed that the locking mechanism was some kind of electrical system, giving him an idea. “Pacifica, is there a fuse box on your level?”

“Hold on, give me a second.” There was a brief delay, then she responded. “Yeah, I can get to it. Why?”

“I need a quick power cut, only for a few seconds. Can you do that?”

“I think so, you’ll have to be quick though.”

He prepared himself, gripping the handle of the safe door. The white light in the room switched off abruptly and red safety lights came on. He hefted at the door, which was now no longer sealed shut. Before the lights could come back on, he made sure it was fully unlocked. He almost laughed at how easy it had been to break into, this set up was out of the middle ages as far as security was concerned. They didn’t even have CCTV cameras.

He peered into the small dark archive, which had only a few shelves. He spotted the component he was after, a tiny circuit board. It was a small piece, but vital as a power regulator. This would ensure that when they finally constructed a portal that the power they fed into it wouldn’t cause an overload.

He triumphantly shut the archive door, just as the full lights came back on. He tucked the circuit board into his pocket, satisfied that it was too subtle to be noticed easily when they exited the palace. He was about to leave, when the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up again.

There was a feeling that he was no longer alone in this secret room. He panned around, but the room was too small and bright to conceal anyone. There was one small thing he noticed that hadn’t been there before. Most of the room appeared normal, as it had before the power cut. But a small section of the wall panelling was now warped, as if it was seeing it through distorted glass.

While studying this, he realised that all the light in that area of the room was bent, folding around as if attracted to some central point. His brow furrowed in confusion at this effect. It was a kind of gravity lensing, with such a density that it was bending the light around and away from something.

Or, as he realised with a chill, someone. The bent space of light suddenly flickered, and a figure menacingly moved towards him. “Hand over the component!” This previously invisible attacker was dressed all in black armour, a tight bodysuit, with a mask concealing the face. It had no identifiable features, just a blank helmet.

“I said it once and I’m not gonna say it again: Give it to me now!” The man’s voice was heavily distorted, a synthesiser in effect to deepen and warp the natural tones.

Mason took a step back to the once again locked archive door. “Who are you? What do you want with this!?”

“Give it to me now! Or I will take it from you myself.” He hefted a rifle off his back. 

Before the man could aim, Mason charged at him, catching him off balance. The rifle went clattering away. They wrestled on the ground, Mason trying to avoid a bevy of upward punches. “Tell me who you are!”

The man shouted up at him. “The Black Hole!”

Unable to hold him down, Mason rolled off to the side and broke into a run. His hopes of using the man’s disorientation to escape were short lived. From his wrist he fired a thick cable, not unlike Mabel’s grappling hook. This line was purely offensive however, wrapping around one of Mason’s legs.

He fell at the lip of the secret painting entrance, hitting the hard wood floor of the Corner Room. He yanked the rope off, then turned to face his attacker. He saw nothing but empty air.

Then he was sucker punched in the side, winding him. Another punch came from behind, hitting his back. He held up his first and whirled round and round, unable to see his attacker. He randomly jabbed out at nothing, managing to land a hit on the Black Hole’s arm. It briefly flickered into sight, a single black limb floating in the air. He got a feel for the material the armour was made of. It felt like plastic, but much more flexible and tough than any he’d encountered before.

The Black Hole didn’t take kindly to his investigation. Picked up by his chest, Mason was thrown across the room. The assassin reappeared, now carrying a jagged metal blade. “Surrender and I’ll make it quick.”

“No thanks. I have to return this suit later, it’s a rental.” He got to his feet inelegantly then started sprinting down the palace hallways. He frantically reached up to his ear. “Paz, we gotta bail, now. Meet me by wherever the nearest window out onto the street is!”

* * *

Pacifica was waiting for him by a second storey window, a concerned look on her face. “What is it Mace, you look like you’ve just run a marathon.”

“No time, we’re being chased, go, go!” Despite her protestations he shoved her towards the window.

“It’s too high, do you wanna break our necks!?”

“If we don’t jump we’re in for a worse fate!” Behind him the Black Hole turned a corner, still holding the deadly sword and marching unwaveringly towards them.

“Who the hell is that?!” Seeing Mason’s panicked face, she dragged him over to the window. “Ok, count of 3.” Mason nodded. “Ok, 123jump!” Pacifica wasted no time and leapt from the window with Mason dragged in tow.

As luck would have it, all the water flooding the streets made it so their landing was less of a collision and more of a large splash. Pacifica had chosen a window she knew would be relatively close to the canal, to increase the chances of finding a deep enough pocket of water. She hadn’t expected her architectural knowledge of the palazzo to be useful in quite that way, but it did the trick.

Floundering, they got up and started running out of the square. “Oh, and I really liked this dress too!”

“Shut up and run, Paz! I’ll buy you a new one for your birthday! When we’re not being chased by an invisible assassin!”

They didn’t have time to book a gondola, so just ran blindly through the streets. Every step took them through the deep puddles, dragging them down and slowing their escape. Pacifica’s heels also slowed them down. She hadn’t dressed for practicality, having not planned to do any running tonight.

They turned several corners, putting some distance between themselves and St. Mark’s. Mason pulled them into a doorway where they halted. They both breathed heavily, trying to regain some composure. “Ok, I think we lost him.” Mason looked back the way they’d come. They were near a small bridge over a minor stretch of the canal. Satisfied that there was no-one there, he turned to look the other way. 

Straight into the face of the Black Hole, blocking their way. The light from a nearby lamp, which lit up the rest of the street, was simply absorbed by the material of the armour, making it look like there was just a cut-out of the space where a man should be standing. “Nice try kid, you put up a hell of a fight. Now give me the portal piece, or it’s goodnight Venezia.”

“Portal piece? How do you know about that!?”

“I don’t have time for questions.” He raised the rifle, which Mason now saw was no ordinary gun. It was curved and smooth, with flashing lights along the barrel. “Recquiescat in Pace, old friends,” he said, with a tone as cold as ice.

Pacifica pushed Mason out the way and defiantly faced down their masked pursuer. “You chose the wrong people to mess with.”

“Paz, don’t! He’s too tough!”

“He might have a fancy bag of tricks, but he chose the wrong city to mess with me.” Pacifica reached down to her ankle and pulled back the hem of her dress. Attached to an ankle holster was a small stone carving. Pacifica held it up defiantly. “Try messing with a Hydro Hydra in a city of water!”

The water in the nearby canal started foaming and splashing up. The Black Hole turned to it in shock, aiming his rifle at the tumultuous water. Then the canal burst its banks, as a swirling mass of liquid snakes charged at the assassin. He was unable to resist the power of the flow. In seconds he was swept away, leaving Mason and Pacifica standing alone in the rain.

“Paz, that was awesome!” Mason looked over to Pacifica, who still had her arms out holding the stela. He came over softly lowered them. “It’s ok, he’s gone. We’re safe.”

“But for how long Mace?”

* * *

Mabel’s night in had been a quiet affair. She’d put it off for a bit, but eventually given in and started reading Pacifica’s book. It was an anthology, retelling several well-known Greek myths. At first she found it quite a slog, too much elaborate backstory with an overload of deities. Once she got into the main thrust of the stories though she couldn’t help but get engaged.

She found some interesting parallels as she read. The myth of Icarus was similar to the myth Mason had told her about Kukulkan, of trying to fly to the sun and overwhelming pride causing ruin. There was a story about Apollo, who was love struck for the nymph Daphne, who could only reject him time and again. It was much like the way Mason had once pined for his older friend Wendy, despite that relationship never being possible.

The story that made her realise why Pacifica had bought the book was that of Perseus and Andromeda. Of course, Mason’s old romantic comparison, with Pacifica as his trapped princess in need of rescue. The pages here were well thumbed – Pacifica had obviously reread the same chapter multiple times. It was sweet how she still held on to a story that had meant so much to her over the years.

So many of the tales were stories of misdirection, with the gods taking on secret forms to disguise and beguile. She laughed inwardly; they were rather like trashy romance novels in some ways. 

As she was reading a story about Odysseus crossing the ocean, like they’d done in the Stan ‘O War, the door of the apartment swung open. The drenched forms of Mason and Pacifica ran in, then Mason quickly locked the door again. Their clothes were soaked through and Pacifica’s mascara was running. “Woha, you guys take the scenic route back? I know it’s a city of water but come on! Did you get the portal doohickey?”

“No time to explain Mabel, pack your things!” Mason yelled. Mabel sighed and set down the book. It looked like another life or death adventure had barged into their lives. “We have to get out the city. Now!”


	9. The Crossroads

As the old fashioned steam train crossed the border of Turkey, the trio took stock of their current situation. They had a private compartment, so could discuss matters freely. “So, run it by me again guys? You were chased by a freaky sci-fi assassin?” Mabel was still flustered from their quick escape the night before.

“Who could turn _invisible_! It was crazy, we only just made it out of there”. Pacifica was writing as many notes in her journal about their encounter with the Black Hole that she could think of, any chance of finding a clue to their attacker’s motive or identity. “I bet he’s something to do with that Gabriel Crane, the guy felt so slimy. Whoever he was, it seemed like he wanted the same portal component we stole. We might not be the only ones investigating this stuff. What do you think Mace? Mace?”

Unusually, Mason wasn’t writing any notes in his journal. He was merely studying an older page, a world map he’d drawn up, with red marks indicating the ‘magical hotspots’ he’d detected and green marks showing places they would possibly find technical parts for the portal.

“Anyway, I think we should go on the offensive, head back to Venice and show that space hole who’s boss!” Mabel slammed a fist down on the table with confidence.

Though impressed by her friend’s resolve, Pacifica shook her head. “It’s not gonna be that easy, this guy seemed pretty tough. And weirdly well-equipped. There was a lot of funding behind that armour. I have an eye for big investments and that tech didn’t come cheap. Maybe we should just get out while we can, head home and give up.”

“What! No way sister! We can’t stop now, we’ve already come so far! And…” Mabel faltered.

“And what…” Pacifica used her most probing tone, perfect for needling Mabel and getting her to crack. “Be honest Mabel.”

“And I’ll miss you guys if I leave now, ok.” She furiously crossed her arms, trying to conceal a small blush. It just made Pacifica grin at how adorable it looked, like a child not wanting to admit they were wrong.

“We can’t turn back.” Mason finally spoke. “We can’t go back, and we can’t face him head on. For the sake of the mission we have to keep going. That Black Hole isn’t going to stop chasing us. We already saw him at the station, he’s bound to know what train we’re on. We keep moving forwards.”

Pacifica took his hand. “But Mace, think about this. Our job just got ten times more dangerous. First it was just the three of us, but now we’re being hunted? We have no clue what’s going on, my dreams aren’t enough to go on anymore! If others know about whatever this is, then maybe it’s too a big a risk.”

“No, this is exactly why we _can’t_ stop. Before last night I wasn’t sure whether anything we were doing had any purpose. Now we have proof bigger things are happening. If someone else is after the same things we are, that can mean only one thing. They’re trying to build a portal of their own.” He let the statement hang for a moment in the compartment, allowing the girls take in the full implications.

Pacifica tucked her journal away. Her enthusiasm for going over the notes was suddenly waning. “So what do _you_ suggest we do then, Mace?”

“We carry on, but from here on out we have to go off the grid. No more flights or easily traceable journeys. This old-timey train is a start, but we need to go even more low-profile. If we can lose the Black Hole’s scent, we’ll have the advantage.”

“Thinking long-term though, what’s our endgame, Dip?” Mabel asked. “We gather up the equipment to build a portal, sure, but we’d still need the technical know-how and the original plans. And we still don’t know _why_ we even need to build one. That could be just what the Black Hole wants!”

“We’ve tried to take it slow and not think of what happens when we’re done, I know. But you’re right. Before we put any work into putting the pieces together we have to know exactly what’s going on. Somehow.”

“So what you’re basically saying,” Pacifica suggested, “is that we’re still flying as blind as ever, but now it’s a race, and we’re being chased. Our lives have certainly got a lot more interesting all of a sudden.”

Mason put his arm round her and stroked her hair. “Let’s just move forwards one step at a time, Paz. For now, our main concern is shaking our pursuer. For that, the ball’s in your court Mabel.” Neither Mason nor Pacifica knew where the train they were on was headed. Mabel had selected their location specifically.

“Ooh, I’ve got a great plan. You two’ll just have to wait ‘til this train arrives! We should order some food while we wait, this nostalgia piece might be slow, but I bet the grub will be great!”

As she’d guessed, the trio dined on the finest cuisine. It was a last hint of elegance before they’d have to leave such luxuries behind. The train finally pulled into what a sign identified as the Sirkeci railway station and Mabel led Mason and Pacifica out onto the street.

At the end of the street was a vast open river, bisecting the city in two and chocked with boats. The couple marvelled at the city’s distant skyline. “Ladies and Gentleman, Mason and Pacifica, welcome! This is our crossroads of the world! Welcome to Istanbul!”

* * *

Mabel pushed her way through the heaving masses of people lining the corridors of the Grand Bazaar. She was used to making her way through large crowds; one needed both quick weaving and a forceful heft to get where you wanted to go. 

Mason and Pacifica meanwhile trailed behind, overwhelmed by the exotic sounds and smells packed into this tight space. Dozens of merchants calling out trying to sell their wares, the unknown wafts of Turkish food cooking on open spits, the feeling of being pressed up against all of humanity. There was also a new sense of paranoia – anyone in this massive crowd could be their enemy, watching and waiting to strike. Never had Mason’s philosophy of ‘Trust no one’ been more on his mind.

They heard Mabel’s voice, which somehow managed to carry over the cacophony of noises. “Hey guys, we’re here! Come and get your rugs!”

They found her grinning by a small bored-looking merchant sitting behind a stall. Indeed, as Mabel had said, there was a wide array of rugs on sale, boasting detailed stitching patterns and vibrant silk colours. While Pacifica was mildly dazzled by the display, never being one to pass up a bit of fancy excess, Mason was disinterested. “Tell me again why you’ve brought us into a massively populated area just to buy a new rug?”

“Relax Dipstick. You should pay more attention. In our line of work it pays to remember that nothing is as it meets the eye.” She exchanged a few broken words of Turkish with the merchant, who had a rugged face that looked like his smile never rose above a straight line. Mabel and the man had a back of forth of words, before eventually seeming to settle on something. “Ah, got it. He and I both speak a little Greek, enough to converse in anyway. He says we can come through to the back room.”

The dimly lit parlour was festooned with even more rugs, hanging from the walls and blanketing the floor. The merchant looked shiftily at Mason and Pacifica, then asked Mabel a question. She responded, then the man shrugged. 

He pulled a rope at the far end of the room, causing the rugs to roll up, revealing a sight that made Mason and Pacifica’s mouths drop open. Three of the four walls were covered from floor to ceiling in guns of all shapes and sizes. Pistols, machine guns, shotguns, even one flamethrower.

Mabel nodded appreciatively at the display. “Mmm, now that’s what I’m talking about.”

Feeling profoundly uncomfortably by all these instruments of death, Pacifica faced Mabel. “What is all this?! This is what you call ‘low-profile’?”

“You two need to loosen up, I’m just arming up. Besides, our rug selling friend here is getting us our map for leaving the city too, be grateful.” Mabel picked up a small pistol off its rack on the wall and checked the clip. “Hmm, not bad, not bad at all.”

“Never pegged you for someone who’d happily work with an arms dealer. I mean, when I mentioned about meeting Gabriel Crane you decried him as, and I quote: “_A greedy capitalist pig getting rich off the suffering and exploitation of innocents_.”

“This is different Paz, we need to be ready if we run into our component stealing friend again. Needs must, and all that.”

Not for the first time, Mason seriously wondered whether his sister had ever killed anyone. The question initially seemed ridiculous, Mabel Pines deliberately taking a life? But the way she handled these weapons, intimately familiar with their qualities, belied some deep experience. She’d worked with the Hombres Caiman, there was no way they’d never run into trouble before. And with all her campaigning there were bound to be times when she inevitably took things too far.

He shook his head. Mabel might me many things, but he decided that a killer wasn’t one of them. She hadn’t changed that much in all the years, there were some lines he expected she’d never want to cross.

“Besides,” Mabel said, “I’m not actually gonna buy one of these guns, that’s way too inconspicuous. What do you guys take me for, an amateur?”

Both Mason and Pacifica grimaced and made ‘ehh’ faces. “You are kinda clumsy and slapdash.”

“As always,” Mason simply stated.

This caused Mabel to snort out a quick laugh, defusing most of the tension. “Here we are, these bullets will make a nice ammo for my gauntlet. Only for emergencies.” She loaded a few bullets into the firing mechanism under her jacket sleeve. “Right, you two wait outside, I’ll sort out our escape route, then we’ll head off. Should be a piece of cake. For once it’s not a magic journal that holds all the answers, just good old worldly experience.”

The couple headed out, leaving Mabel still looking like a kid in a candy store within the hall of weapons. They let people file by them as they huddled quietly in an alcove. “So Paz, you still thinking about heading home after we get out of this place?”

“Nah, I think I was just scared. But I’m more worried about what’ll happen if my dreams come true, I’ve seen some truly nasty stuff. What about you, all gung ho to keep going? I think our run in with psycho hunter the other night flipped both our views.”

“Ha, yeah. I think we should carry on. But this is our last chance to turn back. Once we’re out of Istanbul it’s the mission or nothing. I trust Mabel to get us out safely at least.”

“That’s something. You two might still not _like_ each other again, but it’s something.” Pacifica turned to look at the people passing through. At first it was out of a mild fear, that she’d see the Black Hole leering at them all of a sudden. Then she relaxed and tried to properly immerse herself in the environment.

This wasn’t lost on Mason. “I know that look. It’s nice here, isn’t it. All walks of life crammed together, rare experiences waiting around every corner.”

“It’s kinda crazy. Think of all the places we’ve been just these last few weeks. South America, England, now we’re nearly at Asia. It puts our honeymoon and backpacking trips to shame.”

“It’s not a vacation remember. We have a serious mission.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy these quiet moments. We’ve had precious little chance to do stuff like this in the last few years.”

Mason smiled at her. “You’re right. For now, we can soak in the culture. And you can be my Princess.” They hugged tightly and kissed. They’d had too few moments away from Mabel recently to enjoy each other’s company so thoroughly.

Pacifica broke into a giggle fit. “Ha, Mason stop that! You know my tummy’s too ticklish, move your hands.”

“Uh, Paz, my hands are on your hips.”

She quickly looked down, seeing that he was telling the truth. Yet she still felt a tickling sensation, as if someone was holding their hand over her stomach. A realisation struck her, but in that very same moment she felt a hand clasp around her mouth. Another hand she couldn’t see.

A force started dragging her backwards against her will. Mason tried to react but was dumbfounded by what was happening. A burst of firecrackers in the air behind Pacifica loosened the force and finally allowed her to get free. People in the crowd scattered away at the sudden noise.

Reeling from the miniature explosions, the Black Hole faded into view. He looked around, stunned and trying to lock onto his targets again. He turned as another firecracker blast exploded in his face. Mabel had fired the second round from her gauntlet and was now looking up and down at the Black Hole for the first time. “Wow, you guys weren’t kidding, he looks intense,” Mabel said, slightly awed.

Before the Black Hole had time to react, Mabel lobbed a rolled up piece of paper to the couple. “Meet me later, guys!” They darted into the still flowing crowd, which moved around the odd figure of the black clad mercenary. “You wanna hunt a Pines? Try picking on the alpha twin.”

Smirking, she too ran away, heading in the opposite direction to the others. She glanced back, grateful to see her goading had worked. The Black Hole was forcing people roughly out his way in an attempt to close the ground. He had a hard job doing so, giving Mabel with her nimble body a chance to break away.

She frowned however, as her pursuer flickered away. Confused, Mabel stopped running to try and scan the crowd. A punch from the air knocked her back, then the Black Hole reappeared above her. “Woops, forgot about that.” The mercenary tried to get a hold of Mabel, but she spun off and pushed back into the crowd. Losing him in the winding corridors of the bazaar was her best bet, then she could meet up with Mason and Pacifica.

Leaping over a passing food cart, and apologising profusely to the owner, she wondered to herself about the man chasing her. He was determined enough to cross half a continent in pursuit of Mabel’s family, with technology she’d scarcely seen before. Mason had been right. Getting away from him was their only option now.

* * *

“I don’t believe it, she’s led us to a sewer.” Pacifica held her nose as she looked down through the torch beam. “Look at it, there’s water everywhere. My boots are gonna be ruined.”

“Not as ruined as our party clothes last night at least. We were never gonna get our deposit back on those.”

Waiting for Mabel was almost worse than the prospect of descending into the tunnel. All they could really make out were lines of columns holding up the ceiling. This out of the way door in a back alley leading down into the depths gave them nowhere to hide should the Black Hole show up.

Thankfully they didn’t have too long to wait before Mabel came bounding up, out of breath. “Phew, you guys are alright. You followed the map then, good. Ready to head down?”

“What is this place?” Mason asked, curious. “Those columns down there look really old.”

“Come on, I’ll explain when we’re out of the street.”

Pacifica was glad to find the water covering the floor of the tunnel was spread incredibly thin, only a few inches deep and not even covering her boots.

Mason marvelled at the columns, which appeared reflected in the water, giving the illusion of a massive cathedral-like space above and below them. He ran a hand over one of the columns, feeling the ancient stonework. “This is no simple sewer. These columns, Byzantine era?”

Mabel nodded and took the lead, showing a path deeper into the dark. “This is part of the Basilica Cistern, one the tour guides won’t take you in. This place was built centuries ago then abandoned. Now it’s used as an underground railroad. I’ve made the trip out of the city a few times before myself. We call it the Orient Express, a bit less glamourous than the way we entered the city I’ll grant.”

“Who’s _we_ then, who set this thing up, this escape route?” Pacifica asked.

“Dissidents, anyone who disagreed with the government and wanted out. You guys may not care, but the Turkish government is one of the most corrupt and evil in the whole world. I’ve helped refugees sneak out, political opponents and targets of abuse.”

“I’ve never heard of things being so bad here,” Mason said.

Mabel turned on him suddenly. “Just cause you have your head buried in the sand doesn’t mean it’s not true!” She looked away, then continued on. “Not like any news outlets in the US even really talk about what goes on in countries like this. China, the Middle-East – people don’t see because they don’t wanna see. So bad things keep happening and the world keeps on turning.”

For once, Mason didn’t feel like snipping back with some retort. There had been a lot of conviction and fire in Mabel’s outburst. He quietly spoke. “Sorry Mabel. I’ll try to be less blind next time.”

Mabel briefly stopped walking. “That’s all I ask Dip.” Then she carried on, and they continued through the dark in silence.

Mason and Pacifica barely noticed a change in the cistern by the time they reached the end of their trek. Mabel simply halted, then started running her hands along the wall. “Somewhere along here is a switch to open the way out. Gimme a sec to find it. In the meantime, stand still. I don’t want you disturbing anything.”

Unsure of her reasons for insisting on it, they nonetheless did as Mabel asked and stood still. It was strange being down here. Up above, the city was always on the move, with humanity bustling about. Down here there was nothing but the impassive columns and the cold sheaf of water.

Mabel found a loose brick and pressed in. A slab of the stone wall fell away, creating an opening to a small staircase back up into the sunlight. By now they’d passed underground to the edge of the city, where they could find more discreet transport to their next destination. Mason and Pacifica eagerly headed for the stairs, but Mabel implored them to stop again.

“Wait, shh!” The couple couldn’t hear a thing. Then a tiny, almost imperceptible ripple of water hit their feet. “I knew it, this was a perfect escape.”

“Oh, of course!” Mason realised that the water acted as a way for them to detect the Black Hole. They might not be able to always see him, but down here his every move would create minute splashes. With careful listening and watching the ripples, they’d be able to follow his every move.

Mabel pushed the couple to the stairs, however. “You two meet me outside. I’ve got to give us some more breathing room.”

“You don’t have to do this alone-“

Mabel shoved her brother roughly away. “Go! Get our transport ready. If we don’t delay him, he’ll still be on our trail. I’ll hold him off so we can lose him, now go!”

Mason and Pacifica didn’t complain twice. Pacifica was only sad she couldn’t try the Hydro Hydra again, but down here there wasn’t nearly enough water to create a strong enough torrent. With the two of them safely above, Mabel ran back into the dark to confront their pursuer.

She quickly traced ripples, before ducking behind one of the pillars. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the water be disturbed as if someone was stepping through it. But there was no-one visible, of course.

This was her chance. Before she stepped out, she loaded her gauntlet with the proper bullets she’d acquired from the merchant. No warning shots this time.

She stood in the centre of the tunnel and raised her arm out. “Hold it. I know you’re there. You can’t hide from me down here.” A momentary silence as the footsteps halted.

Then the Black Hole appeared, already with his rifle lifted. “Resourceful, aren’t you?” Mabel was surprised just how little emotion crept into the voice. This man’s voice was much a void as his appearance. “We don’t have to do this the hard way, May.”

“So, you know who I am?” She wasn’t surprised at this - it stood to reason that someone who’d been able to track them so effectively and was after the same thing had been able to figure out their identities. “Doesn’t matter, your hunt ends now.”

“I’m not going to stop. My Society will have the components you’ve taken. You don’t even know what they can do.”

Mabel thought about Ford’s portal, the spinning blue light and the glimpses of the horrors that lay beyond. “I do have some idea. But me and my family aren’t going to stop until the job is done.”

“Then I’m truly sorry.” The rifle began to hum with energy, about to discharge.

“So am I.” Mabel fired first, launching a bullet directly at the Black Hole’s chest. Her aim was true, and the bullet landed square on target.

To Mabel’s horror, the Black Hole didn’t flinch, didn’t shout out in fear, didn’t even recoil when the bullet struck. As if all the bullet’s kinetic energy was cancelled out, it bounced off the plastic armour and splashed to the floor. There wasn’t even the faintest sign of a mark on his chest-piece. “My turn.”

Beams of blue energy shot out from his rifle. Mabel ducked, feeling the heat from the beams as they whizzed by. “Ah, screw this!” She reached into her shoulder bag. The bullets weren’t the only thing she’d bought in the bazaar.

She lobbed grenades out to either side, hitting the ancient columns. The Black Hole cried out, but Mabel’s demolition plan had worked as planned. The roof collapsed without the support of the columns, caving in and completely blocking off the passage. It would take heavy excavation machinery to clear the wreckage. By the time the Black Hole had circled back, then found his way to this location above ground, they’d be long gone.

Mabel silently said an apology to the fallen columns. This was a unique piece of history she’d been forced to destroy a part of.

Then she turned and ran to join the others. Their path was set now. There was no going back for any of them.


	10. The Temptations

` **The Black Hole** `

`An enemy with unknown motivation or origin, this masked hunter is currently our number one biggest threat. We’ve barely escaped by the skin of our teeth from two cities now; the Black Hole has proved relentless in hounding us across the world. `

`His only missions seem to be preventing us from continuing onwards and taking any of the handful of parts we’ve collected for the portal. The name too reveals practically nothing, almost mocking us with how little it reveals.`

`Pacifica seems sure that the businessman, Gabriel Crane, must be somehow involved, but I can’t tell for sure. We don’t have enough information on the man to make a profile, other than Mabel telling me he’s ‘no good’.`

`Ignoring the mysteries of our enemy’s goals, I can discuss the capabilities we’ve witnessed. The face mask has barely any definition, so it’s impossible to guess the wearer’s identity. There’s some kind of speech modulator embedded in the helm too. Perfect for anyone trying to stay out of the limelight.`

`According to Mabel’s account, the black armour he wears is completely bulletproof. I found it pretty tough to punch myself. I’m still not sure what the suit is actually made of. It’s stronger than any conventional body armour I’m aware of, but also seems to be remarkably dextrous, allowing complete freedom of movement and being extremely low weight. Likely some new material specifically made for this purpose, a graphene compound perhaps.`

`The most curious power of the Black Hole is to turn completely invisible. The armour achieves this via some kind of gravity lensing effect, bending the light away from the suit to mask it on the visible spectrum. I imagine this is achieved by applying some kind of super-dense field projector, but I’d scarcely know how, and the power required would be off the scale, especially for a set-up so small. This is even beyond most top physicists’ _theoretical_ plans for such a device.`

`Regardless of all this, for the time being the three of us are safe. We’ve been travelling quietly since leaving Istanbul, mostly hitchhiking or walking where the terrain permits. We’ve hopefully shaken our dogged pursuer for now.`

`We still have the thorny issue of motivation though. We’re only on this ‘quest’ because of Pacifica’s dreams. Attempts to discern a larger pattern have been fruitless, but the Black Hole clearly indicates we’re onto something big. Yet still the full answers elude us.`

`At night I’ve been using a pair of binoculars borrowed from Mabel to track the stars. In particular, I’ve been observing the astral gas cloud Rajesh and I were monitoring. As we calculated, its motion has halted right within Ursa Major. This cannot be a fluke. I just wish we had some way to know what it’s trying to tell us.`

* * *

Standing alone in an open desert south of Cairo, the Bent Pyramid raised up over the sand. The upper half of the structure was inclined at a shallower angle to the base, giving it a unique appearance among its brethren from the ancient kingdoms. As the sun set on the plain, bathing the desert in a deep orange light, three riders from the north rode hard towards the pyramid.

Pacifica was taking the lead with her horse, as was usual. Try as she might to teach them over the years, the twins had simply not taken to horse riding. She herself was loving this ride. The evening had lessened the burning heat on the sands, so now the cool wind whipping through her hair was exhilarating.

When she was first to reach the pyramid she cantered around waiting for the twins to catch up. “That’s it guys, you’re doing it. Slowly now.”

“Hey Paz, I think this horse likes me!” Mabel said as she failed to get it come to a stop. 

Mason just looked stressed out as he arrived. “I can’t believe it, this ride was less comfortable than that bus with no air conditioning! At least we’re here now.”

“Ok, now try to dismount guys, easy does it- oh.” Both twins fell off their mounts onto the sand in comical unison. Pacifica playfully rolled her eyes. “I don’t know how I got stuck with you two.”

“Because you love us really!” Mabel looked up and made kissy faces. Pacifica ignored her and corralled the horses together to tie them up.

Mason got his feet, glad to be back on solid ground. “Did you really have to wear that outfit Paz? You look like you stepped out of a spaghetti western.”

“I think it looks nice; can’t a girl shake things up?” Now that they were safe again, Pacifica had decided to accessorise. She wore a purple cowboy jacket and a waistcoat, along with high spurred boots. Her head was topped with a brown fedora. While it didn’t quite fit with their current location in Egypt, it matched her horse-riding aesthetic to a tee.

“I’m just saying, we have to be ready at all times, what if the Black-“

She waved a hand. “Oh, we’ve seen the last of him Mason. We might as well have a bit of fun while we can.”

“Yeah, Dip, I hear the sexy cowgirl look is all the rage!” Mabel shoved her brother in the back and laughed. He didn’t see the funny side.

“Come on,” he mumbled, “it’ll be dark soon.”

The trio took in the modest pyramid. Mason’s anomaly scanner had once again pointed them this way. It was too risky to make another attempt at finding any portal parts, they’d have to try and make do with trying to solve why they needed a portal in the first place while the heat wore off.

Pacifica put her hands on her hips as she looked around the desert for sings of anything out of the ordinary. “Hey guys, I know it’s nearly nightfall, but I thought there’d be at least some people here. You know, tourists, maybe an archaeologist or two.”

Mason answered. “Well this pyramid’s not as well-known as the big ones up at Giza.”

“Not to mention the civil war going on,” Mabel pointed out. “People are less likely to visit when their lives aren’t as stable.”

“Uh yeah. That too.” Mason brought out his journal. “Anyway, back the pyramid. This was built by King Sneferu, it’s around 3600 years old.”

“Looks all wonky.” Mabel held her hands out in front of her to frame the bent structure. “Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, cool.”

“Well, it’s nothing we can’t handle.” Pacifica strode over and planted her boot one of the exposed stones lining the base layer. Before even needing to be told what to do, she held out her Pine Tree pendant and scanned the stones. She found one that caused the pendant to spin, detecting a magical trace. “Easy peasy, just like in Mexico.”

“Yeah, a bit too easy if you ask me,” Mason said suspiciously. He bent to down to examine the wall of the pyramid. On the stone Pacifica had found was an inlaid symbol, a cross looped around in a circle at the top. “It’s an ankh, an ancient symbol denoting everlasting life.”

Without even laying a hand on the pyramid, there was a grinding of gears and the stone lifted away. Mason looked along a darkly lit tunnel that led down into the earth. “Are you two getting weird vibes here? I mean, weirder than usual. This is practically _identical_ to what we found at Chichen Itza.

Mabel shrugged. “Could just be a recurring pattern. There was something in Paz’s book of myths about that, how different cultures told the same myths and stories. Maybe they all used the same secret doorways too?”

“Maybe, but it’s a bit of a leap.”

“Time for a leap of faith then.” Pacifica started off down the tunnel, impatient to get started exploring. The twins seemed taken aback by how intrepid she was being, so hurriedly followed after. Mabel pulled out a lighter and illuminated the path by lighting torches set in sconces along the way. They traced the sandstone passage to a small antechamber. There were no other paths, it was a dead end.

The room contained three altars arranged in a horsehoe, one of which was blank. The furthest from the door held a sarcophagus, brightly painted in blues and greens that were still vivid after three millennia. A second altar had several stone containers. Mabel excitedly examined these, scattering a swarm of small scarab beetles. “Ooh, canopic jars! Whoever the dead guy chilling in the coffin is, these hold his heart and guts and junk.”

Pacifica scrunched up her face in disgust at this and went to look at the wall over by the altar with nothing on it. “There are some hieroglyphics on the wall over here. Mace, you can read them, what do they say?”

He held up the torch and squinted but frowned at what he saw. “It’s a dialect I’m not familiar with. I think. These pictograms seem very unusual, very different from the standard style.”

Pacifica hopped up to sit on the altar and took off her fedora. She couldn’t shake the idea that these symbols had some important meaning. Mabel came over to gawk at the wall of hieroglyphs, then put on Pacifica’s hat. “It’s gibberish to me sis. Maybe we should check inside the coffin?”

“It’s called a sarcophagus, get it right.” Pacifica smirked at her friend. “Have fun grave robbing, Indiana,” she teased.”

Mabel felt the hat, which matched her brown jacket, then grinned. “Ha, all I need now is the whip. You guys should see what I can do with one of those, I got up to a lot of fun-“

“I don’t wanna know. You can keep your ‘bedroom activities’ to yourself, thank you very much.” She shook her head; Mabel still hadn’t learnt what the word ‘boundaries’ meant. She got up to examine the symbols closer.

There was a pattern, she was sure of it. Mason always said she had a good eye for spotting abnormalities like this. Her eyes crossed over a row of standing people, all shown from a simplistic side-on perspective like in most Egyptian writings. Then her eyes flicked back.

One of the symbols of the people wasn’t a person at all. It was a stylised shape. Another ankh.

Across the room, Mason had reached the end of his examination of the room. “Nothing. There’s nothing in here. Just those jars and the sarcophagus.”

“There are these dirty rags too, look Dipper.” Mabel pointed to the floor, where several strips of torn cloth were scattered about.

“Yes, I’m sure the _scraps of 3000 year old fabric_ are the key to all this, bravo.” Mason gave his sister a slow clap.

“Alright Mr Sarcasm, I get the picture. At least me and Paz are trying to find the answer. Had any luck with those symbols yet? Paz?” She turned around, but Pacifica wasn’t there. “Hey Paz, where’d you go!?”

Mason swung the torch around, but it only confirmed Mabel’s observation. They were alone in the tomb.

* * *

The wall had swung around silently. Pacifica had been bent over to look at the symbols and was swept along. She didn’t have time to say anything to the others. She pressed her hands against the wall, hoping to spin it back around, but it was locked again.

She took stock of her new location. Though she hadn’t been holding a flashlight when she’d switched rooms, now she could see the corridor ahead quite well. It was more brightly lit than the tomb itself had been in fact. Curious.

She turned a corner and was greeted by something she’d never expected to find in an Egyptian pyramid. It was yet another corridor, but high in the far corner was a black box with a lens attached. A green light flashed every now again to show the device was working. It was a security camera.

Not knowing what else to do, she waved guiltily at the camera. Almost imperceptibly, she saw the lens contract, zooming in on her face. “Ok, I suppose this is ‘out of the ordinary’, but in completely the wrong way.”

She pressed on; it was the only way to find answers about this place. More corridors, straight and narrow, funnelling her on. There were electric strip lights hanging above, and cables snaked their way across the floor. It gave the pyramid the air of a film set, like all this masonry was a façade waiting to be knocked down.

Round a last corner, then she was in another antechamber. This one couldn’t have been more different from the previous. That had been ancient, a dark tomb with the weight of history bearing down. This room looked more like a recording studio. There was a large control panel wired into a wall covered in grainy black and white monitors. 

One screen clearly showed the feed from the camera she’d just passed, while another caught a glimpse of their horses, still tied up outside the pyramid. There on another screen were Mason and Mabel, back in the tomb. It was a spider’s web of connections, whoever operated this room could see everything.

“_I didn’t see where she went either!_”

“_Now the main door’s shut too. We have to explore every option here._”

The twins’ voices came from a speaker on the control panel. Pacifica had enough of being a silent observer, so called out. “Hello? Is there anyone here?”

“Oh my, so sorry! I was just freshening up.” A silk curtain at the back of the room parted and an Egyptian woman stepped in. She had black hair cut short and tied into many braids. She wore a bright dress made of an entirely white fabric but embellished with golden lines. Pacifica’s eye was drawn most of all to her headdress, a heavy looking crown that held a large reddish circle above her head.

It was as if she’d stepped straight out of the old kingdom of ancient Egypt. The woman bowed. “Where are my manners, dear girl. I am Hetepheres, welcome to my pyramid.”

“You _live_ here? I’m Pacifica, I’m just… exploring this place. Who are you really?”

The woman chuckled then came to sit in a reed chair in front of the panel. “I was the wife of the pharaoh. This pyramid was dedicated to me, so now I make it my home.”

“Wait, hold up. The wife of the _pharaoh_? That would be the pharaoh Sneferu? Then you must be over 20, 30… _centuries_ old!” The woman just smiled enigmatically. “That’s ridiculous though, you can’t be serious.”

“Oh, deadly serious. Poor old Sneferu, he really misjudged me.”

“But how, how can you still be around! You look young, like you haven’t aged.” The woman continued to smile, which made Pacifica realise she wasn’t being flippant or lying. “You really did live in ancient Egypt!? You’re telling me you found the secret of immortality?”

“Not quite. Now, a-mortality, perhaps…” Hetepheres looked at her banks of monitors with curiosity. “Ooh, we’ve caught two flies in our web.”

She was talking about the twins, but Pacifica wasn’t having it. “Don’t deflect, tell me the truth. Tell me what you are, how you survived.”

Hetepheres pouted. “That is an annoying memory to recount. My husband, well you see he was dying, as all men eventually do. He constructed a great tomb, of course, and mandated that all his worldly possession be buried with him. Including myself.”

Pacifica gasped. “That’s horrible!”

“Hmm, oh yes, quite. I think for the first few days I simply went mad. Entombed in this dank pile of rocks, I clawed at every wall, pounded with all my strength. It was hopeless, I could not escape. So I tried to focus all my energies inwards. I would show Sneferu that I was more than just ‘his woman’. I searched deep within the dark recesses of the mind and came out a stronger person. One for whom the passage of time was as trivial as the flapping of a butterfly’s wings on a far off isle.”

Pacifica glanced over at the flickering monitors. “But you’re not trapped, you had to get all this equipment somewhere. So clearly you can come and go?”

“As I please, my dear. I have the decay of time to thank for that, eventually enough of the tomb’s walls broke away. No, this place is simply, shall we say, a refuge. A sanctum where I need not fear the outside world.”

“What do you have to fear though, if you can’t die?” Pacifica still didn’t understand how someone could maintain themselves across thousands of years simply through some kind of mental conditioning.

“Oh, but I _can_. I have banished death from myself, yes, but that fate can still befall be from external forces.”

“That’s what you mean by a-mortal then. You can live as long as you like, barring accidents?”

“Or deliberate attack. Why, I’d even say you, dear girl, probably have enough strength in you to throttle me to death here and now. You wouldn’t test me that way, would you Pacifica?” The way Hetepheres said that made it sound like some kind of threat, making Pacifica tense up. Then the Egyptian laughed. “I’m kidding my dear, you have nothing to fear from me. Why, you’ve been chosen!”

“Chosen?” Pacifica took a step back.

“You saw my sign, the ankh, the looping arc of my life. You have an aptitude for it, I can tell. Seeing things others can’t, perception over the world beyond the surface. You could make a perfect successor.”

“Successor? Now hold on, I’m not asking to become an a-mortal, or whatever you are. Me and my friends are just here to… to explore.” She almost let slip that they were here to find something supernatural but decided that keeping that information might be prudent.

“Alright then, let’s check on your companions then, see how they’re faring.” Hetepheres turned up the volume on the tomb’s speakers. “They’re about to find something they weren’t expecting.” That statement didn’t exactly reassure Pacifica much.

* * *

“I’m telling you, one second she was here, the next – poof, no Paz! It’s not my fault Dipper!”

“Ok, ok, I believe you!” Mason was feeling high-strung regarding his missing wife. “There must be something we can find, some way to reopen the tomb.” He swung his torch all around over the same areas, again and again as if he’d overlooked some minute detail that would pop out.

Mabel jabbed a thumb out at the elaborately decorated object on the other altar. “We haven’t tried the sarcophagus yet, maybe it’s worth a shot.”

“Hmm, defiling a 3000 year old burial site? Eh, it’s for a good cause, what’s the worst that could happen?” Mason set down his torch, then both of them heaved the lid of the sarcophagus open.

It slammed onto the floor with a crash, making Mason wince. Mabel just stared straight into the newly opened coffin. “An invisible mummy, woah!” She ran her hand through the sarcohpagus’ interior. “Hey wait, it’s just empty, what gives?”

Mason picked up his torch and waved it over. “Yeah, there’s just more scraps of cloth in here. Something’s very odd about this.” The light from the torch flickered wildly as a gust of wind swept through the tomb.

Mason stared hard at the inside of the coffin. There was movement now, and it wasn’t from any beetles. The scattered rags were twitching

Mabel felt something coil around her ankle. It wrapped tight, then pulled hard. But before it could trip her up, she swirled round and sliced what was holding onto her with her Swiss army knife. It was another scrap of cloth, now flapping uselessly on the stone floor.

All around the room, the fabric began crawling together, slithering around. The twins stepped back from the sarcophagus, where the rags were most concentrated. “Mabel, these aren’t just random scraps, they’re bandage wrappings! You know what that means?”

“I can wager a small guess bro, yeah. Oh boy.”

Out of the sarcophagus came bundles of bandages, wrapping around and around each other to form two vaguely humanoid shapes. A third began forming near the door behind them. They weren’t a quite human shaped, more like clouds of bandages swirling about.

Mabel fired a bullet at one on the forming mummies. It punctured one bandage, leaving a pinprick impact hole. The hole was swiftly covered as more bandages furled over and around it.

Back to back, Mason lofted the flaming torch and Mabel raised her fists in defence. “We’re gonna go down fighting, Dip, right?”

“Sure, we may have had our differences, but we can do this! Stay tight together, don’t let them make an opening. They might not like the fire, old dry cloth burns easily.”

“Got it, now this is really like the old days - inches from death with no way out, am I right?”

Mason laughed. “Ha, that’s more like it.” He swung the torch wildly at the floating masses of bandages. “I really hope Pacifica’s having a better time than this.”

“We can hope.” She spluttered out one last question. “Mystery Twins?!”

Mason nodded briefly, focused on his task but answering seriously. “Mystery Twins. Now let’s do this!”

* * *

On the grainy screen, Pacifica couldn’t make out many of the details of the twin’s fight. She couldn’t see the fear or determination on their faces, nor how dangerous their opponents really were. “Real life mummies! Those are, like, one of the classic textbook monsters, this is so cool!”

“Thought you’d be impressed.” Hetepheres was clearly amusing herself with this indulgence for Pacifica’s sake. “Just a little parlour trick, my constructs are harmless really.”

“So what do you want from me? You gonna train me to live forever, is that it?” Pacifica might have been starting to be taken in by this woman’s claims, but was still sceptical enough not to jump right in.

“Sure, once your friends are dead you’ll have no mortal ties and will be free to join as my apprentice!” Pacifica’s mouth hung open limply. “Just a joke, little joke. Come now, I’m not all that beastly.”

“Uh huh. Right.”

“I mean, with the way the world is heading, you’ll want to hitch yourself to some stability. I can give you a chance to ride out the coming storm.”

“Wait, you know about what’s going on?” Pacifica’s heart leapt in her chest. With all their previous magical encounters they’d had no chance to ask questions, the beings they found too cryptic or non-intelligent. But here was someone claiming to have knowledge that could enlighten her as to the portal’s necessity.

“I’ve been having dreams lately, seeing images that I think are… things to come. Have you seen anything like that? Please, we’ve been looking for answers for weeks now!”

Hetepheres’ eyes widened. “You’ve seen it too? You truly are a blessed one, to have seen the burning.”

“Burning… yes.” That had certainly been part of her visions, sights of worlds in flame and nothing but ashes remaining. “Tell me everything you know!”

Hetepheres’ suddenly seemed tight lipped, as if Pacifica had said the wrong thing. “Doesn’t matter, it seems I got the wrong impression. I thought you had the same goal, but clearly… nevermind then, in time you will come to see as I do.”

The dropped subject frustrated Pacifica. Here was a chance to learn something solid for once, snatched away. At the same time, there was something about the woman’s focus on the burning that made her cautious. It seemed their visions didn’t completely align.

“Is this gonna take long then? To teach me the secrets of living forever? Cause my ‘team’ and I have other things we need to be doing.”

“Oh, it shouldn’t take too long. Just a few dozen years should allow you master the skills-“

“No way, I’m not hanging around in this dusty tomb for that long! We have to leave soon, Mason has detected other sites of importance, and if we stick around there’s a person chasing us might track us down.”

Hetpheres waved a hand, as if spending multiple years on one task meant nothing. “Trivialities, not important. Once we’re done you’ll have all the time in the world.”

“What about Mason and Mabel?”

“Irrelevant, you don’t need them.”

“That’s my husband you’re talking about! And my best friend! I won’t just abandon them.”

“But I selected you, Pacifica my dear. You’re the one with the special destiny. That’s always been the case.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” Pacifica didn’t like the way this conversation was going.

“It’s obvious, I can tell so much about you just by your appearance alone. You’re an open book!”

Pacifica looked down at herself, seeing the flamboyant cowboy outfit, all leather and denim. She didn’t get what was so obvious to Hetepheres. That made her annoyed, that she could miss such blatant tells about herself.

“First, that long hair is a dead giveaway. Luxurious and silky smooth and so very long. No-one without a lot of time to kill would focus so much on it. It takes effort to maintain and keep that healthy sheen. So you obviously care about the way you present yourself. That's what all the dress-up is about too. You packed this outfit and brought it all this way over the sands. Control the way you look, and you control the way people see you. Elaborate outfits to dazzle the common folk and hide the real you. Because the real you _is_ inside there, scared of not being seen as the best.”

Pacifica defensively clutched at her hair. She was missing her hat right now, anything to hide herself from this woman’s gaze. Which played right into her hands, as Hetepheres had a knowing smile. Pacifica angrily threw her hair down. “It’s not like that anymore!”

“Ah, but you reveal more, careless. So your childhood was one of wealth, one where tailoring your look mattered a great deal. I know what it is like to be raised with money, I taught my children the same lessons as royals. We are better than the rest and deserve these gifts we have earned.”

“That’s not true! I hated that life, money never bought me an ounce of real joy! You don’t know me.” She looked again at the black and white image of the twins, fighting against the floating bandages. Though it was hard to tell, it looked like they were working well as a team for once. They kept circling around with their backs to each other, a strategy that kept the mummies at bay. “They’re what I care about, not living forever. What’s the point if you live it alone?”

“But even when you were younger, did you dismiss the benefits of your inheritance? Could you so easily cast off that life? It was a hard won struggle to get where you are. Did you never desire the easier option, to coast by, secure forever? To be an actual Princess?”

“No,” she answered. But there was a part of her, buried as deep as this tomb, that still missed out on ‘what could have been’ had she given in to the temptations money could buy.

“Think about it, please. I don’t want to see you throw away your potential.” Though Hetepheres’ words rang true, they also reminded her uncomfortably of her parents’ old lines of argument. They’d often mention how she was ‘giving up on a better life’. It was uncanny how much Hetepheres was playing on her old weaknesses. 

“Open book, that’s what you said.”

“Excuse me?”

Pacifica reached into her jacket pocket. Her Llama Journal was there, but the pages where moving oddly. “You’re animating this the same way you do with the bandages! That’s how you know all about me, not extrapolating context clues! I’m not quite that shallow, you sanctimonious bitch! Stay out of my life!” She slammed the journal tightly so that the pages stopped wriggling.

Approaching the a-mortal woman, Pacifica tucked her journal away and started cracking her knuckles. “I’ve had enough of this. If you really want to judge me on appearances, then look at my damn necklace! That’s like a flashing neon sign for telling you where my allegiances lie.”

Hetepheres backed away. “We can talk about this, my dear! See reason! In an infinite span of time you’ll forget the past! It’s a better chance for your future too.”

Pacifica halted. “What exactly do you mean by that? And be very careful what you say next.”

“Your legacy, it’s as simple as that. In this life you can leave only a minor footnote in history, your architecture perhaps, standing the test of time. But with more time you could do so much more. After all, you have no _other_ way of leaving a legacy. You already failed with your husband to do that.”

Pacifica’s eyes narrowed in a barely concealed seething hatred. “You’ve crossed a line now!” She picked Hetepheres up. Despite being so old, which would presumably convey some basic survival skills, the woman was light enough to lift and barely made an attempt to escape. “Bringing that topic up with me? It’s a sore subject, to be blunt.”

“I was only saying-“

“SHUT UP.” She pushed the Egyptian up against the wall. “My home life from the last five years is private, no matter what you think you can ‘infer’ from me!”

Hetepheres rolled her eyes. “Very well. I didn’t want to have to do this, but you forced my hand.”

From the monitors came a noisy sound of struggling. Pacifica dropped the woman and ran over to the screen. The mummies had become more aggressive, wrapping around Mabel almost entirely. Mason was trying to tear bandages off her, but they continued wrapping their way up Mabel’s body. Soon they’d cover her face, her mouth… she’d suffocate.

“Stop this, now!” She turned, but Hetepheres had slipped free and was standing over by the curtain.

“Sorry, my dear-“

“I’m not your dear!“

“-but I have a choice for you. Either you can pursue me and fulfil your destiny. Or you can save your tawdry friends. Tick tock, not long now.” She ran off behind the curtain, likely heading for another exit to the pyramid.

Pacifica stood her ground. There was only ever one choice she could make. What Hetepheres said made her think there was a way to stop the mummies here in this room. She ignored the technical controls for now, these mummies were clearly magic not conventional science.

She found her answer on the base of the reed chair. A small wooden carving was taped there. It was another ankh, of course. Held in the loop at the top was a glowing red ruby. Wasting no time, she lifted the ankh high above her head, the struck it on the floor with all her might.

A mighty crack split through the ruby. It began shaking and shafts of light shot out, the immense energy that must have been contained within seeping out. Pacifica checked the control panel, finding a switch that re-opened the door of the pyramid they’d entered through.

Then, sparing one last glance at the billowing curtain, she ran to return to her destiny.

* * *

Mason finally won out against the dusty rags embracing his sister’s face. She gasped for air as he freed her. Then the rest of the bandages on her body, as well as around the room, went limp. Mason realised that he hadn’t done anything at all, their external power had just gone out.

“We did it bro! Somehow!” The room started to shake as he tore the remaining bandages off Mabel and got her upright.

“We have to find Pacifica quickly, something’s going on here, we should-“

He felt a bump in his back, then turned to see Pacifica, who funnelled him towards the door. “Guys, there you are, no time to explain, gotta run fast now!” She yanked Mabel back up then pulled both twins out of the tomb.

“Pacifica, you’re alright. Thank goodness!”

“Never doubted you for a second, sis!”

“Run now, talk later!”

When they emerged from the pyramid it was completely dark outside. Up above, the desert sky revealed more stars than any of the trio had ever witnessed before in one sky. But they didn’t have long before their attention was brought back down to earth.

A fiery blast erupted through part of the pyramid. It began to cave in, crushing the tomb and camera room completely. A gust of wind swept over the desert, blowing the fedora of Mabel’s head. It lazily floated down as the shaking earth became still. They’d just made it out in time.

“So much for ‘cultural vandalism’,” Pacifica said. “Sorry Mabel, guess this is another historical location we’ve trashed this week.”

“I’m just glad you’re safe. What happened with you in there?”

“I met someone who knew about my dreams.” Both twins looked at her expectantly. “It’s not that exciting, I didn’t learn much. We can talk about it later, for now…” She hugged both Mason and Mabel tightly. “For now let’s get our horses and get out of here, that fire’s gonna attract a crowd eventually. I’ll fill you in as we ride.”

Pacifica was glad to be away from that domineering Egyptian woman. Though she didn’t want to admit it, her arguments were still ringing in her head. The possibilities were undeniably attractive. But then she saw the twins again, goofily trying to get back on their steeds, all to impress her. She smiled, knowing that she’d made the right choice.

She also made a mental note. When she told this story to the twins later, she’d have to be careful not to tell the whole story around Mabel. She didn’t want to bring up her past. Some things really were private between her and Mason and were far too terrible to bring up after all this time.

Like the secrets of the pyramid, sometimes the past was best left in the past.


	11. The Pentagram

The torment had been going on for hours. In a small suburb near the edge of Johannesburg, Laetitia Jones had finally trapped the demon plaguing her household in the small pantry adjacent to the kitchen. Even now she could still hear it, bashing against the door and breaking anything stored in there. She was shaking at the thought of it emerging, having seen the damage it could do.

Her house was already in ruins, torn apart. There was a horrendous mess. The only safe and clean spot was her bed, raised up on four bricks wrapped in old newspaper to keep it off the ground. That little bit of common wisdom had proven true.

There was a burst of banging from a new direction now. It sounded like the racket was coming from her front door. It couldn’t be another one of these creatures? Surely not!

She tentatively stepped off her sanctuary, leaving the raised bed to check the sound pounding out on her door. She placed her hand on the knob of the rattling door, which still shook with every knock from outside. Shaking as much as the door, she pulled it open and gasped.

Standing on her porch was a pale girl in torn clothes. Blood dripped from her mouth and her arms were raised up straight. The zombie’s mouth curled up into a massive evil grin. “Trick or treat!”

Laetitia fainted, unable to take this further invasion to her home. The zombie stepped back. “Woah, I didn’t mean to scare her that much!”

A witch in a pointed hat strode up beside the zombie and shook her head. “Nice going sis, you only went and terrified our lead even worse than the actual monster.”

“I knocked first, it’s not my fault that she can’t take a bit of Halloween fun!” The zombie and witch both looked up as the clanging noises from the pantry started up again. “Woah, Dipper, get over here. This is definitely the right place.”

* * *

Mabel and Pacifica carried the woman to her risen bed while Mason studied the noises coming from the pantry. They all surveyed the devastation in the house, with Mason taking it in dispassionately as usual, like a police forensics team analysing for clues. The girls were more shocked by the level of petty vandalism that seemed to have been wrought here. Smashed plates, cupboards torn off their hinges, food strewn all over the floor.

Mabel returned to the kitchen and shook her head at Mason. Unlike them, he hadn’t done any dressing up for the holiday. “Come on bro, couldn’t you have put some effort in? It didn’t even have to be twin-themed, I’d have been fine with any kind of costume.”

“I’m wearing my ‘spooky’ black death-metal band t-shirt you got me when you went through that goth phase, does that count?”

Mabel blew a raspberry. “Pfft, of course not. Shame on you Dip, I expect better come Summerween, that’s for sure.” Mabel’s own outfit had taken a few hours to prepare, adding body paint to lighten her skin, making specific tears in her clothes, and some ‘blood’ makeup to complete the effect. She’d even covered up some of her tattoos with make-up to make it look like she had massive red scars on her arms. Mason had questioned the need for this, citing their important mission. But if she couldn’t hang a bit loose on Halloween, then what was the point? “At least Paz is some kind of, I dunno, cat witch?”

Pacifica crossed her arms as she entered the kitchen. “I’m not a cat, Mabel, these are vampire fangs!” She ran over the fake teeth with her tongue, then sighed. “But yeah, I guess they are kinda cat like.”

“Well, you’re pretty pale and don’t tan well at the beach, so I suppose it adds up.” Mabel ignored her friend’s scowl and looked at the pantry door, which still occasionally shuddered. “So, what have we got this time?”

The others didn’t answer. Mason had Journal 7 open, intently reading over some old notes. He was clearly figuring out what kind of supernatural creature they were dealing with, one eye always on being able to quickly recall details from his copious text. Pacifica pulled out her own llama journal and started writing something down with quick pen movements. Her own notes were likely more contemplative than Mason’s. Pacifica was always one to anticipate what the future brought, never quite sure of herself despite the outwards façade. That had once been the way Mabel herself thought but she’d managed to shake off that fear.

Mabel regarded the sight of the couple with an odd pang of sadness. Not for the first time, Mabel wished she kept a journal of her own, if only so she could join in with the others’ shared activity. She'd dropped off from filling in her scrapbooks, her closest equivalent to a journal, years ago - it was harder to focus on recording 'precious memories' when her brother and best friend were so distant.

There was also never enough time, she was always on the move from one protest or campaign to the next. Same with their new travels around the world, Mabel found there was little time to soak up a culture before they were shuttled to the next, even before they had the looming threat of the Black Hole on their tail.

During their journey south through Africa, Pacifica had spent most of the time with her big pink headphones on, listening to music. She used it to lull herself to sleep, as unlike the twins she still hadn’t acclimatised to these lengthy marathon journeys. In addition it helped her disconnect from having to talk about what had happened in the pyramid in detail. The event was evidently still weighing heavily on her mind.

Mabel also ruefully noticed that her withdrawal had handily served to let her avoid any bickering that would ensue between the twins. Across road and rail down the backbone of the continent, Mason had still been largely silent towards her during the trip. It was a silence Mabel reciprocated. She knew that anything she tried to say would almost certainly backfire or fail to move him.

Mabel’s innocent charms, that so often won over any strangers she met, fell completely flat against her brother. He’d grown too cynical. Too wary of Mabel ‘ruining’ his life somehow. Wary, despite the fact his life had already been upended in the last few weeks. Mabel could hardly make it any worse.

She left the couple to think to themselves. Although they were each working on their journals separately, Mabel could tell that they were still clearly comfortable with this state of affairs. Sometimes having someone to just be around while doing other things was all you needed out of a relationship.

Then that just made Mabel feel sad again – she didn’t have someone like that. She resolved to give Eli a call tomorrow at least, she was missing having someone she could confide in by her side. She wondered what he was up to, now that the Seattle protests had all winded down?

Mabel’s interest in watching husband and wife’s shared journal session was waning. She looked over at Pacifica’s witch outfit, consisting of a purple leotard and tall black boots. She was glad that her friend had been convinced to partake in a break from their normally serious journeying. Unlike Mason, she hadn’t lost that spark of innocent fun.

Mabel also didn’t fail to notice that Mason kept stealing glances at Pacifica. He clearly liked seeing her in a new get-up too. Even now he was still head over heels in love with Pacifica. That was comforting to Mabel. If her brother hadn’t given up on ‘true love’, then maybe there was still a hope for reconciliation.

Their mutual relationship with Pacifica seemed key. If there was any chance for either of them, it would be through her. After all, when Mason had first met Pacifica hadn’t they hated each other? If those two could come around and fall in love, then maybe there was a chance for Mabel to win him back around to her side.

Mason cleared his throat theatrically, bringing Mabel out of her self-focused reverie. They all knew what was coming now, he was about to slide into journal exposition mode. Mabel didn’t mind the superior tone he applied when reading from the journal, nor the way he patronisingly explained things to the girls. She knew from his youth that any kind of confidence like that from him was something worth appreciating.

“Ok, I’m almost certain that what we have behind this door is a Tokoloshe. A particularly nasty and mischievous little beast. Not too pleasant on the magical origin side either.”

“Just spit it out Dip, we don’t have all day.” Mabel crossed her arms and smirked at him.

“Fine, whatever. So, this creature, here’s the sketch.” He showed the page to the girls. The creature was a squat floppy-eared gremlim-like creature, with a crushed face turned up into a sadistic grin. There was a small cavity on the top of the creature’s head. “This thing is a local trickster demon. They generally cause massive amounts of mischief. You’ve seen what it’s done to this poor woman’s home.” 

He panned his hand around at the totally wrecked kitchen. “That hole in the head was made to carve out the skull for ritual purposes, it imbues the flesh with magic.”

“Flesh?” Pacifica wrinkled her nose. “What was this thing before it was turned into a little torture psycho then?”

“This is the nasty part. A Tokoloshe is created by taking a… a human body… a corpse…” He swallowed, briefly unable to carry on. Mabel knew that her brother always did have a squeamish side when it came to the more disturbing encounters. Pacifica too seemed even more vampiric with how much the colour was draining from her cheeks. “The body is dried out and withered, that’s why the creature ends up so small, these things are barely a foot tall.”

“But they cause a hell of racket,” Mabel said, mindful of the constant banging still coming from the pantry. “How can we shut it up then?”

“Tokoloshe’s are supposedly deployed by a magic user to torment someone who they disagree with, or who annoyed them. Bit low stakes as far as magic goes, but it can have big effects on people who don’t deserve it.”

“Well, enough pussyfooting around, let’s just grab the troll and follow him back to his master.” Pacifica strode over to door and yanked it open. “He’s so small, how much trouble can he- ah!”

The Tokoloshe ran between Pacifica’s legs, charging for the front door of the house. It was just as Mason’s description and sketch had shown, that eerie paper thin skin wrapped around a tiny frame. One detail that he hadn’t mentioned or known about was that the creature had no eyes – they’d been brutally gouged out.

Mason tried to dive and grab the creature as if it was a thrown football, but it was too nimble for him. Showing surprising strength, the Tokoloshe slammed the front door out of the way. Mabel dashed out after it, determined not to lose their only trace back to its creator. She fired with her wrist gauntlet and seemed to get a direct hit. Yet the little creature continued to run, disappearing into the night in a tiny cloud of dust.

“Damn it! The little fucker got away!” Pacifica cursed, then started yelling out into the street. “Stay out you little creep, if you come back we’ll trash you the same way you trashed this house!” Mabel suspected it was the fatigue from their long travels that was making Pacifica so on edge tonight.

Mason came over and rested a hand on her shoulder. “It’s alright, we might still be able to find some clue to its whereabouts. We need to think about motive, about what reason somebody would have to plan this attack.” They went to Laetitia Jones’ bedroom. “What do we know about this woman? We need to think of anything that could cause her to be a target.”

Mabel examined the still sleeping woman, then spoke bluntly. “Well she’s white, that might be important.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Mason said obliviously.

“Uh, earth to Dipper, this is South Africa! Apartheid only ended a couple of decades ago, and society is far from properly addressing the ramifications. Here, details like this might matter, sad as that is.”

Mason frowned, but not in a way that conveyed annoyance at his sister. At least he’d started sympathising more with her over the last weeks. Now he just seemed upset that the world still had such pointless divisions in it. 

Pacifica leant over. “Well Mabel, since you seem to know so much about all this, why don’t you wake her up?”

Mabel rested an arm on the woman’s shoulder. Then, without taking it slow, she roughly shook her awake. “Hey, get up lady! We’ve got a mystery solve and no time to waste!”

Her eyes groggily opened. “Uh, uh! Zombie, get away!”

“Woah woah, it’s not what it looks like!” In the light of her home, Mabel no longer looked as convincingly terrifying as before. “It’s ok, we’re friends.”

“Who- who are you? What are you doing in my house?”

“We’re the Pines, we heard there was a disturbance. It’s ok now, the Tokoloshe’s gone. What’s your name?”

“Jones, Laetitia Jones. Are you the police?”

Mabel snorted with laughter. “Fuck no, we’re not cops! I’m about the furthest thing from a cop there is. Uh, but,” she said, seeing Mason and Pacifica’s shocked reaction to her lack of tact, “we are professionals. I can promise you that.”

Mason held his open journal and showed Laetitia his sketch of the Tokolshe. “Miss Jones, do you recognise this creature?”

“What sort of question is that? I’ve had that damn thing tearing up my home for the last 2 hours! Never shoulda ticked off the shaman…”

“Shaman?” Mason was intrigued, but Mabel could once again tell he was being too clinical. This woman needed calm reassurance, not somebody asking penetrating questions about obscure magical concepts.

“He’s some whackjob, lives somewhere in the countryside outside the city. Folks say he has a secret devil-worshipping shrine. He comes into town sometimes.”

“How’d you annoy him? I mean, I presume you did annoy him, given… this.” He gestured at the state of the house.

Now Pacifica too could tell he was making Laetitia uncomfortable. For all Mason’s gifts with analysing mysteries and rooting out problems, he did have some blind spots when it came to dealing with ordinary strangers. “Miss Jones, we’re just trying to get any information we can on this, anything could be important.”

“I just passed him in the street the other day, it was nothing!” Her response seemed honest, so the trio let her be. She had enough to worry about without them intruding in her ruined home.

Pacifica looked out into the dark street beyond, where there wasn’t so much as a footprint to show where the Tokoloshe had been “So now what, how are we gonna find this ‘secret shrine’?”

“That’s no problem guys.” Mabel showed off her gauntlet confidently. “I hit that little tik-tokoloshe with a tracker dart. Let’s go make sure this shaman doesn’t hurt anymore random people.”

* * *

Mabel’s tracker led them south, further out towards the edge of the city. It seemed that their quarry was heading towards the small Klipriviersberg Municipal Nature Reserve, an enclosure of wild space between the city and the river.

The further they ventured from the city centre, the worse the conditions Mabel saw. The moderately sized houses like the one owned my Miss Jones disappeared, replaced by shoddily built shacks as far as the eye could see. This shanty town had sprung in the last few years, a sign of the falling economy that most of the world was going through.

Mabel had seen such inequality and squalor before of course. You didn’t travel all across the world fighting for political causes without seeing all walks of life. She’d even been forced to inhabit the slums a few times, in her more desperate moments. But that didn’t interest her right now, one downtrodden slum was much like any other she’d seen.

No, this time she was more focused on her companion’s reactions. Mabel wanted to see how it affected them to see this kind of thing, the kind of thing she fought so hard against when she could.

To her chagrin, if not her surprise, Mason was choosing to ignore the grimy homes they passed. His brow was set forwards on their hunt, without a second spared for the people’s lives he walked by. Like his blind spot with people, Mason often buried his head in the sand when confronted with the really important issues like poverty and discrimination. He kept his head down and lived his own life. In some ways, she could understand. One could go mad trying to worry about every problem in the world at once. It still rankled her though, how he could breeze past such material suffering without a thought?

Pacifica at least was a lot more attentive, her eyes darting there and about, catching glimpses of the shacks. After leaving the house, she’d taken a marker and drawn whiskers on her cheeks, embracing Mabel’s goofy misunderstanding. But now her catlike face was turned down in a small frown. Mabel reached out and put a supportive hand on her shoulder. “Hey sis, it’s rough here, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, seeing it all like this, so raw. Some of these houses look like they barely have running water even. The place feels medieval, how can anyone live like this?”

“It’s not exactly a choice, Paz.”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that,” Pacifica said, flustered. “Sorry, that was careless. I’m so used to living comfortably, ever since I was a kid I’ve never wanted for anything. I’ve seen what it’s like to go from everything to nothing too. After I came to live with you guys in Piedmont, my parents cut me off completely. It’s not a good feeling to look at your bank account and see only a handful of change. But I can’t shake that desire for quality in anything I buy. So, I can see wealth, but it’s sort of backwards, if that makes sense.”

Mabel nodded, grasping what she was getting at. She noticed Pacifica wringing her hands slightly, then she reached up to fiddle with her Pine Tree pendant. Mabel knew that was a classic Paz stress reaction.

She changed the subject. “Speaking of homes, I bet you’re missing yours a lot. Must be tough to upend your life when you’re not used to all this movement.”

“I dunno, I did ‘upend’ my life once before, when I left my parents behind.” Pacifica was starting to smile at the memory of all her defiances. “This is small-scale in comparison. I’ve only abandoned my job, my house, and my dignity.”

Mabel laughed, but there was a slight edge of genuine panic in Pacifica’s voice she was eager to quell. “What’s your house in Jersey like anyway? I bet you two have personalised it and made it really cool!” Mabel excitedly reeled off the possibilities. “Like, Dipper’s probably got some kind of arcane study, ooh, and I bet you’ve got a wing of the house just for storing all your clothes!”

Pacifica’s smile dropped completely. This was a subject she didn’t want to discuss. “It’s… fine.” Another topic Mabel had somehow crossed the line with. What secrets could the couple possibly have to hide living in their bland domestic bliss? 

She wanted to salvage this quickly. “There must be something you’re missing from Trenton though, anything at all?”

“Well, I’ve missed _soooooo_ many reality shows since we’ve been gone.”

The girls shared a chuckle at this, Mabel was back out of whatever sensitive subject she’d blundered into. “Tell me the one thing you’re missing the most in all the world.”

Pacifica’s eyes darted left and right conspiratorially, then she hunched over to whisper in Mabel’s ear. The covert action made Mabel smile even more, Pacifica wasn’t above a bit of exaggeration even now. “Alright, I’ll tell you, but keep it quiet. Every week for exercise, me and Mace take a Zumba class-“

“You mean that rhythm dancy stuff?! Ha! That’s hilarious, I can just imagine-“

“And if you ever tell another living soul, I’ll give you a reason to be more scared of me than any Tokoloshe.” Pacifica’s expression was stony, but then couldn’t resist breaking into a small smirk.

“If you two are done gossiping, we have work to do.” Mason spoke icily from up ahead, not turning back to look at the girls.

Mabel put her hands on her hips and pouted. “We weren’t _gossiping_, Dipper. Do you care about what me and Paz talk about at all? Or this is all about ‘the mission’?”

“We have important work to do, this Tokoloshe-“

Mabel interrupted - she’d heard it all before. “Is this all we’re doing Dipper, going from one minor problem to the next? A haunting here, a cryptid there? When are we gonna actually solve anything?”

Mason turned on his heels. “It’s what we used to do on our Mystery Hunts. You never complained about it back then.”

“But we need to do more, there are more important things going on! Why can’t you understand?” There was a hint of sadness in that question. She honestly didn’t know what her brother really wanted, whether it was to go back to the way things were before, or just to swiftly end whatever was causing Pacifica’s dreams.

Mason didn’t have a chance to reply though, as they’d reached the nature reserve. The sound of rustling from within the trees was enough to get all three of them to focus on the present moment. Their argument would have to wait until later.

Mabel’s tracker confirmed they were at the right coordinates. They left civilization behind and entered the reserve. The wide open spaces resembled a savannah, as Mabel recognised from countless nature documentaries (which she watched for the cute baby animals).

There was a thick, smoke-like mist covering much of the park’s interior. Mason pushed forwards, determined to end this quickly. He headed towards a small light he could make out behind the mist, centred in a cleft of high rocks.

It was bright candle, positioned at the centre of a chalk rune etched on the soil. “Get a look at this, girls.” They peered through the mist down at the shape. Mabel realised it was a star. Not just any star either.

“It’s a pentagram.” One of the classic alchemical symbols, she’d been familiar with that sigil ever since encountering Little Gideon back in her childhood. It didn’t exactly bode well. 

Pacifica knelt over and held her pendant. “Hmm, no spinning. This rune isn’t actually enchanted with anything.” More candles around the cleft suddenly sprung to life. 

“You could say this whole meeting is ‘enchanting’…” Pacifica was aware of a face appearing out of the mist right beside her. It was a grinning white skull, lit by the orange flames and with seemingly no body. “Boo!”

She leapt back in fright, knocking into Mabel. The skull receded back into the mist. Mason grabbed his journal to try and make sense of this, but the skull stared up at him from right in front of the page. “Oh, a bookworm, man after my own heart, heh heh.”

Mason slammed the book shut, seeing the face dissolve out of sight moments before the pages came together. The voice of the skull echoed around the cleft. “What light through yonder window breaks? Who comes to my sanctum?”

Mabel felt a tap on her shoulder. “Hey zombie, you look like you could be some fun.” The skull was behind her now, expecting her to jump away in fright.

She wheeled around and fired her gauntlet right at the smug skull. Her current ammo choice was a mini net launcher, meant for catching their wayward Tokoloshe. The skull’s eyes widened as the net wrapped around his head.

He tried to prise it off. “Aw, shame girl, you’re quicker on the ball than you look.” Mabel strode over and grabbed the body she could now see was attached to the skull. “Ag, no, get off!”

“Talk skully! Wait, that’s not bone.” She reached out and felt the skull. It was ordinary skin, covered in a coat of white paint. “It’s fake?” The man she was holding grinned brightly.

“You’re too smart for me. How about a friendly chat then?” The man’s voice seemed oddly refined, not what Mabel had been expecting from a crazy shaman living in the wild. She tried to study the witch doctor in more detail. His skin was a dark black, making the white paint on his face stand out even more brightly. It made for a good illusion on the mist, making him appear to float without a body. He was dressed in priest-like robes, adorned with odd totems and small animal skulls.

She tried to guess his age. His forehead seemed wrinkled, but the rest of him was youthful, not much older than herself and the others. She let the man go. Pacifica and Mason were alarmed by this, but let Mabel continue her interrogation. She could always fire another net at the man’s head if he proved dangerous.

“Alright, let’s talk. I’m May Pines.”

“Bokamoso Potgieter.” He stood back and theatrically bowed. “I am glad to be of service to, heh, such fine exorcisers as your company. I am the witch doctor.” He said this lightly, almost like it was a joke.

“So who are you? You’re the magician causing trouble in town?”

“Well, think on my name. Potgieter, sounds a bit like ‘poltergeist’, you think? But it’s actually derived from potter, as in ‘maker of pots’. Ha, imagine me, doing pottery, surrounded by vases and teacups! My life is _much_ more interesting.”

“Huh?” Mabel hadn’t been expecting a mini-lesson on etymology. “Just who are you? You _are_ the one who cursed Laetitia Jones right?”

“Ech, that woman. She annoyed me. Said I was stirring up trouble, me! Just by living in her neighbourhood. So I decided to pay her back.” Mabel remembered this man’s idea of payback, a terrified woman and a destroyed home.

“Go back further.” Mabel narrowed her eyes, trying to get a bead on the man.

He rolled his eyes but smiled genially enough. He pulled out a small remote control and pressed it. The mist surrounding the cleft started fading away. “Handy little thing, a smoke machine. Very good for obscuring the truth. But I’ll explain, since you Americans seems friendly enough. You haven’t done me any personal harm yet.”

He sat on a rock by the chalk pentagram, then beckoned the trio to sit on the ground, like he was a schoolteacher about to give a lesson. “All my life, people have called me out as different. I was picked on. For how poor I was, for the colour of my skin… I had a very lonely childhood. Alas, poor Bokamoso, I knew him well.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Mason said, “where did you pick up such an erudite tongue?”

“When you’re a lonely kid with no friends, you find yourself drifting to libraries. Oh, they had all the great works, Shakespeare, Tolkien, Pratchett. Often those stories liked to talk about tricksters, people playing those in power for fools and making a mockery of all the pointless rules. My kind of life, I think.”

“That’s what this is!” Mabel snapped her fingers and pointed at Bokamoso. “It’s an act! You dress like this to scare people, but it’s all just smoke and mirrors, a way to unsettle them. That’s pretty clever actually.”

The shaman beamed. “Why thank you Miss Pines. I got the idea for the outfit from the voodoo priests of the Americas, all that dramatic flair and dark imagery, bound to convince some people. Especially on a night like tonight. Halloween night, once the time between one year and the next, where beings from beyond are said to step through into our world. Why not play that role?”

Mabel was starting to like this guy’s guts. Performative guerrilla theatre of this kind was a technique she’d often employed to convey political messages during her campaigns. It was easy to be sympathetic to a poor picked on kid as well.

“But you do have real powers?” Pacifica was more unsure about the man, the image of how scared Laetitia had been lingered. “The Tokoloshe was yours?”

“Oh yeah, my little familiar.” He shrugged as if it was the most casual thing in the world. “I’m a bit special, I’ll admit. I know a few basic summoning spells. The Tokoloshe ritual was a simple enough one to follow, and Jones did deserve to have a taste of her own medicine. So there. Magic is real. Yet you three don’t seem surprised?”

Mason answered. “Me and my sister have known about magic since we were 12 years old.”

“And I’ve known even longer,” Pacifica stated simply.

This surprised Mabel. She’d never thought to ask what Pacifica’s first encounter with the supernatural had been like. Growing in up in Gravity Falls, one was bound to run into something sooner or later. Had it simply always been a fact of life for her that strange things existed?

Her brother probably knew all the details of course, they’d have talked about such things. Once again that gulf of five years opening up, stealing connections from their lives.

“How’d you get your powers then?” Mabel was keen to get back to the topic at hand.

Bokamoso grimaced. “My mother always tells me my father was a very unique individual. And, well… there was something else I was singled out for when my peers mocked me…” Mabel stared as the man lifted a hand to his forehead. He started smoothing out the wrinkles present there.

Except now she realised that they weren’t just simple age lines. There was a distinct fold in his skin. He pulled it back, revealing something that made the trio gasp. A third eye stared out at them from the middle of the shaman’s head. “Spooky, eh?”

Mason started excitedly writing in his journal. “Fascinating! You’re some kind of hybrid! I’m curious as to what species you’ve inherited traits from, it must be-“

“Uh, Dipper?” Mabel reproachfully said. “Don’t treat him like some lab experiment. He’s a human being, remember.” Mason sheepishly closed his journal again. There was his inability to read people flaring up.

Bokamoso seemed glad of Mabel’s support. “That’s my story then. I probably seem old fashioned, quoting Shakespeare in the 2020s! But I am merely an actor with a stage, can you blame me?”

“What about the corpse you used to make that awful little gremlin?” Pacifica said, still a bit queasy at the idea.

Bokamoso nodded. From behind him came the freakish Tokoloshe. “Yes, well, needs must. The local cemetery has a surprising lax security policy.” He coughed into his hand, clearly as uneasy with the practice as the trio were. “I’m sorry about that. I can stop if you like”. He snapped his fingers and the Tokoloshe became still. Mabel detected some genuine remorse in the man, that his bravado and acting couldn’t disguise. “So, who are you guys exactly? A bunch of nosy do-gooders here to cancel my performances?”

Mason tried to act confident as he did when introducing himself to potential clients with magical problems. “We’re mystery solvers. Investigators of the unknown?“

“Really nosy fantasy nerds?” Pacifica proffered with a grin that made Mason huff. “We’re on a bit of a quest, you see. Hey, since you’re magic, I don’t suppose you’ve had any weird dreams lately.”

Bokamoso stroked his white painted chin. “Hmm, I have sensed… something. A pressure from out beyond the stars in my mind. Recent, as if something new is arriving.” Pacifica nodded at this, once again glad to find someone with a glimmer of what she was going through.

“So, given your outfits I assume some sympathy to my cause. What is dressing up on Halloween if not an attempt to generate a reaction in people?” He nodded towards their costumes, making sure to direct a particularly pointed glance at Mason’s lack of themed attire. “Are you going to, what, turn me into the police?”

Mabel smiled, agreeing with his incredulity at the idea. “From where I’m standing, we don’t have to do anything. Just, maybe lay off the creepy necromancy and punishing people too badly.”

Bokamoso put his hand on his heart. “On my honour, Pines. Perhaps I can share some of my spellbooks too, if your quest is as important as you say. What about you, architect?”

Pacifica thought that he was talking about her and had somehow used his powers to glean more information about her life. But she noticed his eyes looking towards Mason. It was just a pun on his name. A small scowl on her husband’s face showed that it was a pun he was frustratingly familiar with.

“You seem a bit of a troublemaker to me. I know tricksters, and I’m not a fan. But, I guess you’re harmless enough. Compared to what we usually find the end of a trail, this is practically pleasant company.”

Bokamoso gestured over to the chalk on the ground. “That pentagram’s not always an evil sign, you know. Only when it’s inverted is it a mark of black magic. So you see, it’s all about points of view.” He opened his arms wide and winked. “Safe travels, Pines.”

The trio got up to leave. Mabel was pleased to have met a tentative ally on their trip around the world, proof that not everything they encountered was out to get them.

Before they left the cleft entirely, Pacifica called back. “Hey, you told us earlier what your last name meant. What about your first name, ‘Bokamoso’? What does that mean.”

“It happens to mean ‘future’.”

“Huh. Fancy that.” Mabel watched her friend think over what he’d said. The future was something weighing heavily on her. How could it not, when it visited her every night when she dreamed.


	12. The Familiar

A large crowd had gathered in the square in the centre of Makhachkala, the capital of one of the many republics that had carved themselves out of what used to be Russia. The square was bounded by grimy industrial buildings from the Soviet era, and a thin layer of snow covered the ground. The crowd was angry, hurling insults at the small police presence, who wore swat armour and face-masks. The police were armed, but the protestors had numbers on their side.

There were also more visitors to the city. A sea of large red circus tents had sprung up overnight, camped right by the target of the crowd’s ire, the Vechnyy news building. It was a gothic manor, built before the fall of the tsars. A large curved screen attached to the building and facing the square showed a constant feed of news reports.

A major deal was underway inside, with the news organisation about to score a major coup. The citizens of Makhchkala had finally had enough of Vechnyy’s influence, so had poured out into the streets to protest the deal as loudly as they could.

It was into this milieu, on the coast of the Caspian sea, where the Pines trio found themselves once again embroiled in what Mason called ‘tedious local politics’. “Great, we travel across Europe, both ways up and down Africa, and we end back in another protest. What luck.”

“I know!” Mabel beamed. “What luck!” She was at home in this bustling throng, cheering in support along with the locals.

Pacifica was trying to avoid bumping into anyone as they moved towards the front of the crowd. She hated to get in such close physical contact to so many people. “Do we have to be out here? I know it’s your ‘crusade’ and all May, but we’re in Russia. In November.” She wrapped her purple winter coat tighter. She was glad she’d brought a pair of her old fur-lined heeled boots as well.

Mason was similarly wrapped up warm in a thick coat and fittingly had brought out his old ushanka, which for once he wasn’t the only one wearing. The hat had been a gift from his old friend Wendy and though he rarely wore it these days it still had a lot of sentimental value as a reminder of his first summer in Gravity Falls. He was certainly wishing it was summer right now, that was for certain.

Despite the cold, Mabel’s only affectation was a red silk scarf. The frigid weather didn’t seem to bother her much, and it was if the body heat from the crowd was keeping her warm. When they finally did reach the front of the crowd, the trio saw a balding man in a business suit being led towards the Vechnyy building by security guards.

The jeering crowed missed no opportunity to hurl insults and fruit towards the man. “That’s him, Mabel?” Mason inquired. “That’s the news mogul, Selchen?”

“Yep, there’s our awful human being. Anton Selchen.” Mabel confirmed. “His ‘_news_paper’, if you can call it that, is full of lies! He’s practically anti… well, everything! Gay rights, immigration, you name it. He hates my guts too.”

“You’ve met before?”

“Well, not met, but I’ve protested his business a few times. Became quite infamous a few years back when I started up a rival fanzine. Ha, that was a lot of fun to make. Now he’s back in our sights.” She pulled out a scrap of paper, covered in incomprehensible scribbled notes. Pacifica tried to get a look, but it was Mabel’s patented shorthand, unreadable to anyone but her. “According to my sources, there was a delivery his main building two nights ago. My informants have been prepped to let me know if they hear anything about parts we could use for the portal, and this shipment has that kind of stuff written all over it. We have to get inside and take a peek.”

“I’m sure that’s all you’re after, not tearing down his business as well?” Pacifica remembered the night of the fire at Re-gen, when Mabel had totally wrecked the lab. “S’pose if he’s bad as you say then he deserves it. I knew plenty of rich old creeps like him when I was younger.”

Mason pointed a mitten-clad hand to the side of the building. “Hey, what about that?” Now that they could see the building clearly, they could also see the bright circus top adjacent. “A circus popping up right at the same place as this protest, and our portal part? What are the odds of that happening by chance, I wonder?”

The circus had drawn in a few visitors, but most of the activity today was concentrated in the protest square. Mason turned to the girls. “Alright, I think we should split up. Mabel, your skills are best put to use here, mill about, see what you can find out about Selchen’s recent activities, maybe find out where he’s holding the component. I’ll mosey on over to the circus, try and learn what the connection is. Pacifica, what do you wanna do?”

“Huh, wha?” Pacifica hadn’t seemed interested in either option, too distracted by staring at the front of the Vechnyy building where a large logo was being displayed on the screen above the main door. It looked like a beam of light hitting a prism, then splitting into multiple pathways. But the way they crisscrossed seemed important somehow, like it was forming a shape. Almost like a heavily stylised letter A.

Not grasping the significance, she looked back and forth between the twins. “I think I’ll stay here. Those tents probably aren’t any warmer, and I don’t wanna lose Mabel in this crowd. You know what she’s like when she gets side-tracked.”

Mabel, who was already dazzled by a woman selling colourful beaded necklaces, hadn’t even heard Pacifica say that. Mason nodded, then gave Pacifica a quick parting kiss. It was a nice moment of warmth to counteract the icy air.

Pacifica was still lightly blushing from the kiss when Mabel nudged her side. “What do you bet he doesn’t find anything in there and comes back empty handed?”

“I don’t know. You once went mini-golfing and found a whole society of sentient golf balls living in secret. Anything can happen.”

“Ha! That’s the spirit. We need to find someone who’ll tell us about Selchen then. I don’t suppose you know any Russian?”

“Nyet,” Pacifica said with straight face. She started walking back into the crowd the way they’d come, head turned to continue talking to Mabel. “So what, you just expect us to bump into someone who happens to speak English? Yeah right, what are the chances-oof!” At that moment Pacifica walked straight into a man’s back, having not been looking where she was going. Rather than apologise, she just got tetchy. “Hey, watch it!”

The man turned, causing Pacifica to stare in amazement. It was Eli Corazón, Mabel’s friend from back in Seattle. The one with whom she had a ‘complicated’ relationship status.

“Eli? What the ding dong heck?!” Mabel came bounding over, full of energy and joyfully bewildered to see him.

For a split second Eli looked panicked to see them here. Then he broke into an easy grin. It was a look Pacifica recognised from being dragged to so many parties by her parents. She’d seen it on the faces of countless rich boys. It was a look that said, ‘I know what I want and I’m going to get it’. Rather surprisingly, it seemed to be working on Mabel, who was grinning back at Eli with something approaching desire.

“May! Good to see you! I never expected… well, I guess you feel the same!”

Mabel could no longer hold in her excitement, and, squeeing, ran forwards to envelop Eli in a hug. “Wow! Honey, I’m flattered you came all this way just to see lil’ old me!” She booped his nose with a finger.

“So this is where you went, off with… uh, Pa- pa-“

“Oh, it’s Pacifica, get it right someday,” Pacifica said, rolling her eyes.

“Sure. Pacifica. Got it this time.”

Mabel was bouncing up and down on the spot now and had a grin that threatened to leap off her face. “Come on, let’s go over to that bar, I have so much to fill you in on! And I bet you have a story to tell too! It’s so convenient that you showed up here!”

“Yeah. Convenient.” Pacifica narrowed her eyes. With all the other things going on in Makhachkala, this was just the cherry on top.

“Wait!” Mabel blurted. “Who’s looking after Apep?! If you left her alone you’re in big trouble mister!”

The way she said it made it sound like a childish statement to Pacifica, but the worried look that crossed Eli’s face told her that Mabel definitely meant business.

* * *

Mason skirted under one of the tent flaps quietly, hoping to avoid having to pay for an entry ticket. There was his Grunkle Stan’s influence once again rearing its head. It was times like this he most missed the old codger. Imagining him grumbling his way across their world tour brought a wry smile to his lips.

However, he never expected to be confronted next by what looked like an exact miniature replica of his uncle. Pushing his way into the tent, the small man was wearing a black tuxedo with a loose red bow tie. On his head sat a red fez, and he wore a likely fake eyepatch. “Hey you! No cheapskates! If I have to throw you out I can, I’m stronger than I look.”

Mason held up his hands, feeling very confused. “Hey, woah, I’m just poking around, I didn’t mean any harm. There’s something weirdly… familiar about you.” He stared at the man’s face. He then realised that this wasn’t a man at all. It was just a kid, must’ve been only 12 or 13.

As he studied the boy’s face, his eyes drifted to where his hair was slicked back beneath the fez. There was an odd cluster of spots on his forehead. Spots laid out in the shape of the Big Dipper constellation. “Oh. My. God. It’s you! Or, me? Quattro?!”

The boy’s eyes went wide as saucers, and he hastened to remove the eyepatch. “No, it can’t be! Dipper?!”

It was strange hearing that name from anyone other than Mabel. For so long now he just introduced himself as Mason. But this was a very special case, as standing before him was a blast from his past. 

The last surviving clone born of Mason on the night of the party at the Mystery Shack, 15 years ago, Quattro had come from Ford’s cloning photocopier, made in a mad attempt to woo Wendy that night. Even on that very night Mason had realised how dumb his plan was, so looking back now made him cringe even harder.

Quattro, along with his brother Tracey, had been the only clones to make it out of that night alive. Tasked with causing a distraction by stealing Robbie’s bike, they’d returned to find their brethren gone. They became nomads after that, trying to stay out of trouble and eking out a life in the woods of Gravity Falls.

After 5 years they finally had a re-encounter with their ‘creator’, coming back in Mason’s life. Tracey had unfortunately been lost, but Quattro now held no ill will towards his new ‘brother’. Mason had found this circus leaderless, so set Quattro up to live here with the other persecuted ‘freaks’ and outcasts of society.

Now it was like staring back in time, as Quattro’s paper body was bound never to age. Whatever weird science had spawned him also left the clone with a strong aversion to water, which had been the cause of several dark patches on his face, like burn marks.

Mason slapped his forehead, in the exact spot his birthmark was located, and stood back. “Wow, this is surreal. Seeing you again is so crazy. You look so professional.”

Quattro waved him away. “Aw shucks, it’s nothing. This little outfit’s just my presenting gear.”

“_You_ host the shows now? Wow, I’m impressed.”

“Of course, nothing but the best for Quattro Alcor’s Constellation of Amazements.” He brandished a cane and strutted about dramatically, reciting part of his act. “_Come one, come all, see the Scylla, the beast with the body of a snake and multiple wolf heads! Must be seen to be believed! Tickets 800 rubles! No refunds!_”

Mason applauded as his clone bowed. “Ha ha, awesome. Just like Grunkle Stan used to…” Mason’s smile dropped, but Quattro noticed.

“It’s ok, I heard that he passed away. I’m sad I couldn’t have come to the funeral.”

Mason rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, that would have raised some awkward questions.” Parts of the Pines family, including Mason and Mabel’s own parents, still had no knowledge of the supernatural. Keeping that secret had been a lot harder when they all lived under the same roof.

“I’m carrying on his legacy though, in a way. I only really knew him for a few weeks…” He had a distant look that Mason suspected was a sense of wonder about all the things he missed out on. They shared memories of the start of that summer but diverged for everything after.

“So what are you doing in Russia of all places? I know you’re a ‘travelling circus’, but this is a bit far out of our neck of the woods.”

Quattro looked away. “That’s kind of a long story. I’ll tell you later. First, what about you? Last I heard you’d settled down.”

Mason ran a hand through his hair. “Where to start? Well, Pacifica, you remember her, she was having weird dreams, see…” He rambled on for a while, telling Quattro the outline of their trips so far, from Colombia to Europe and all the way south by land past the equator. “Now Mabel’s investigating that news guy, Selchen.”

“Ugh, _him_.” Quattro spat the word. “He’s kinda the reason I’m here too. We’ll get to that. Walk with me, bro.”

Mason smiled dumbly, it was weird hearing a version of himself acting so smooth and domineering. “Whatever you say.”

“So, is Mabel gonna be gracing us with her presence? She did always like this place, the music and lights and strange creatures. Just like the old Shack.”

“Ah… that’s tricky. Mabel and I… well… we fell out. Hard.”

“What?! Oh no… over what?” Quattro looked crestfallen at this turn of events.

Mason tried to think of an answer to his question. There hadn’t been one single moment when their relationship had fallen apart. There was no angry shouting or screaming matches, no wishing the other twin hadn’t been born or something savage like that. It was just the slow deterioration of their friendship, until little remained, as was so often the case.

”We drifted apart, over little things. She’s here in Russia with us though, maybe she’ll visit later.”

“Maybe. I hope she doesn’t make it weird like last time though.”

“Last time?” The last time _Mason_ had visited Quattro had been many years prior. The young clone had taken his circus tour on the road after that, and they hadn’t managed to stay in touch. One more relationship he’d failed to maintain.

“Yeah, she’s searched me up and popped in a few times to say hi. Seems like she’s been all over the place. But each time she came she got more… I dunno, clingy.” He blew air through his cheeks. “Ooh, last visit musta been 2024, ‘25. I was kinda glad she stopped by then, she kept acting like a mother hen. I mean, I know I look young, but still.” 

Mason knew why it was that Mabel had acted odd around Quattro. It was because she’d been missing _himself_ during those years. Quattro must have been like a strange surrogate for the lost relationship. No wonder the clone had been slightly uncomfortable with it, being put on a pedestal as ‘Uncorrupted Dipper’. At least Mabel seemed to have realised her error and stopped before she became too pushy. She must’ve been the one to tell him about Stan’s death.

“Well, hopefully she won’t be too weird about it this time. I mean, no worse than the usual Mabel default, ha.” This raised Quattro’s smile.

“Come on, I’ll explain what I’m doing here.” Quattro headed off further into the network of linked tents but called back. “You know, it’s weird seeing you all grown up, Dip. You look old enough to be my dad!”

Mason froze in the tent corridor for a moment. “Yeah… a dad… that’d be nuts.” The he hurried after his wayward clone, pushing a raft of thoughts deep away in his mind.

* * *

“Ok, on three we drink.”

“Are you sure about this Mabel? I’ve never tried vodka before. And it’s the middle of the day.”

“Pfft, it’s never too early, that’s why it’s called _day_ drinking. Now, three, two, one!”

“Bottoms up I guess.” Pacifica threw her head back and downed the clear liquid. She felt a slight burn in the back of her throat but swallowed the drink easily enough. “Reminds me of my college days.”

“They were never as fun as when I was around, sister! Ah, this is way better than that synthi-alcohol stuff. They never can quite capture the taste.” That seemed a bit rich coming from a vegetarian, who mainly subsisted on imitations of meat products. It had certainly made getting food on their trip have an extra layer of hassle, with neither Pines twin allowing themselves to eat meat due to their long-standing conviction.

Eli brought over two more shot glasses. Pacifica declined another drink. “No thanks, we’ve still got a job to do. Once you two are finished ‘catching up’, or whatever.”

Eli nodded, then knocked back the spare drink himself. “I can’t tell you how good it is to see a familiar face. Out here I don’t know anyone yet.”

Mabel nodded heartily and squeezed Eli’s hand. “I know the feeling. I was starting to go a little crazy cramped in with Paz-Paz and Dipper.” She quickly looked over at Pacifica, hoping to clarify that statement. “No offence, you’re great, but sometimes you wanna shake things up, talk to different people, you know?”

Pacifica sensed that Mabel was already slightly tipsy. Her excessive joy at seeing Eli was quickly melding into the post-alcohol buzz. And she’d also now been reassured that her snake had been safely escorted to a kennel by Eli, where it would likely stand out against most of the other animals.

But Pacifica still didn’t feel easy, sitting here in this bar the middle of the day, which was scarcely any warmer than being out in the street. She had always been suspicious around new people. That trait was a weird hybrid holdover from two parts of her life. Her childhood, when she’d been taught that all strangers would be envious of her family’s money and weren’t to be interacted with. Then her adolescence onward, when she’d only ever confided in a small handful of people, like the twins, not letting anyone else get close enough to see her weaknesses.

Curling a finger in her hair and idly staring at the bar, Pacifica tried to tease more information out. “So, Eli. You decided to tour the world as well? Supporting a major protest seems like a complicated way to start a holiday.”

“Well, May was gone, I was drifting a bit.” That didn’t surprise Pacifica, the air she’d always got from him screamed ‘laid-back’. He was the kind of person who’d amble through life, never quite sure whether they were coming or going. “I thought, why not follow in her footsteps. Not literally I mean, but in your goals. Fight for a cause, have a purpose, help people.”

Mabel was hanging on his every word. “Wow, that’s so noble of you. Taking on tyranny across the world, just like me.” Her hand tightened around Eli’s.

“What about you, May? From what you’ve told me, it sounds like you’ve been all over the place.”

“That’s basically our plans in a nutshell – ‘all over the place’. I mean, Paz, you’ve had those dreams, but we still don’t know why we’re travelling. Just a distant hope that we can achieve something, I guess.”

“I’m sure you will in the end.” Eli’s hand made its way to Mabel’s thigh, and Pacifica had to stifle a grimace.

“What exactly do you do for money anyway, Eli?” Pacifica probed. “Getting to Russia and supporting yourself doesn’t come cheap. Believe me, I know, getting around the world on ‘rich architect’ money is still a big expense.”

“Oh, you know, odd jobs, here and there. Enough to pay the rent and get by.” She didn’t like the evasiveness of his answer.

“That’s just like me!” Mabel leant over. “I found jobs all over the place, waiting tables, doing art commissions. At one point I even sold stuff I knitted, people actually bought my sweaters.” There went that avenue of suspicion, Pacifica thought. Mabel was a lot of things, but she held her complete trust. If Mabel could sustain that lifestyle, then why not Eli? But there was still a lingering doubt around the man in her mind.

“What about family, friends? You left them all behind?”

“Did you?” he shot back.

The question stung. Pacifica _had_ no real family or friends besides the twins. She and Mason had made few connections in Trenton, and she’d cut all her family ties years ago.

Eli put his hand on his chest and smiled, not a grin designed to win her over, this was more honest. From the heart. “Look, I can see you’re a little wary of me Pacifica. Showing up out of the blue and all. How about you come up to my room, and I’ll show you girls the dirt I’ve got on Selchen. I’ve been here long enough to get some information about the layouts of his building, does that interest you? I get the feeling you’re here for more than sightseeing or day drinking.”

Pacifica crossed her arms but nodded. “Alright Corazón, it’s a deal.”

She could already feel the table jiggling from Mabel bouncing up and down with joy now that they were getting along.

Eli was renting the small apartment above the bar. It was more cramped than his and Mabel’s shared apartment back in Seattle, with an open plan design so the bed, kitchen, and living area were all connected. He opened a drawer and pulled out a sheaf of brown documents. “These are the original contracts from when Selchen purchased his building. It’s really old, Victorian era I think. I found them in the public library. There’s also a basic floor plan.”

Pacifica gratefully took the papers. “Wow, this is really helpful. I mean, the room layout won’t tell us much of their current purposes, but for general navigation it’s useful.” She looked at the original contract for the building. There was a dramatic signature at the bottom, with the name Selchen written in big looping letters. It must have been signed by one of the businessman’s great grandparents.

Sitting down lazily on a couch, Eli stretched out and Mabel enthusiastically landed beside him. “Thanks so much E, you don’t know how much this means to us.” She put her arms tenderly around his neck. 

Eli pulled out a small joint and held it out. “Got a light?” Mabel pulled out her lighter, then they took turns smoking, passing the joint back and forth.

When Pacifica smelt the smoke, she moved away over to the kitchen area to study the notes in peace. She’d always been very straight-laced with all types of drug use. Meanwhile Mabel, being the adventurous kind, would try anything and everything at least once.

Mabel was starting to unwind even more with all the alcohol and drugs swirling around her system. She cupped both of Eli’s cheeks and giggled as she playfully smooshed them together. “I’ve missed you. I want a big teddy bear to hold me close.” His arms wrapped around her back.

“I’ve missed you too May. I think… this time I don’t want to let you go so easily.” Mabel felt Eli’s hands slide down towards her back, then further to cup her ass.

“Ooh Eli, first you show up out of the blue, now you’re pressing all the right buttons. You’re getting so daring mister!”

“Hey, I wanted to finally join the cause, and not be just an ally on the sidelines.”

“I’d have thought you’d start somewhere a bit nicer to protest though, maybe somewhere like the Bahamas. Some place that’s not cold enough to freeze your balls off.”

“Maybe they could do with warming up?” Mabel felt a hot blush flow through her cheeks. She knew where this was leading, and she liked it. A part of her mind said to show some restraint. They did still have stuff do with Selchen. Then the overwhelming part of herself simply said ‘screw that, I wanna have some fun’!

Mabel dived into Eli’s lips, kissing and running her hands over his head. It was covered in a very light layer of hair that tingled her fingers. Eli’s hands pressed tightly against her rear, pushing their hips close together. Mabel pulled off her jacket and tossed it across the small apartment. Now wasn’t the time for tender moments. She wanted everything, fast.

Over at the kitchen area, Pacifica was still looking at Eli’s documents. She reached the point where she thought it was time they got Mason and acted on the information. “Hey guys, I think we’re ready to get started- OHMYGOD.” She nearly dropped the papers in fright when she saw the furious lovemaking Mabel and Eli were getting started with on the couch. Eli’s pants were already off, thrown somewhere out of sight, and he was now tugging at Mabel’s tank top to pull it over her head.

They were both seemingly oblivious to the fact that Pacifica was even still in the room. Blocking the sight with one hand, she speed-walked out of the apartment, a crimson glow radiating enough heat to keep her feeling _very_ warm out in the icy streets.

* * *

“And that was the last time we saw the Black Hole, in that cistern. He hasn’t caught up to us since, thankfully.” Mason finished recounting most of their recent adventures to his youthful clone.

“That’s crazy, Dipper. It sounds like not much has changed with you on that front at least. Always getting into trouble, saving the day.”

“Well I wouldn’t go that far. We haven’t saved much, besides one frog man and a bunch of mildly annoyed people in Johannesburg. I hope we can end this whole thing soon. I don’t know how many more components we need for the portal, and we still don’t have the answers for why, but I’m tired of this hassle. At least, not with Mabel anymore.”

Quattro was sad to hear this. “You’d really go on without her?”

“Yes. Maybe. I don’t know, there’s so much to untangle. I suppose she’s good in a fight, if we run into the Black Hole again-“

“Be serious Dip, she must mean more to you than that.”

He looked away from the accusing eyes of his younger self. Maybe he did want more from Mabel, but if she wasn’t going to help him either there was no point trying. “It’s not a good working arrangement right now, we’re just riling each other up.”

“Well, have you thought about calling on someone else to help? It’s not like Mabel’s the only person who knew about all the supernatural stuff. There was Soos-“

“He’s got kids to look after now-

-or I know you and Mabel made other friends after I was made, like Pacifica. There must be one or two who’ll lend a hand?”

Mason shook his head. “Maybe when we’re nearly at the end of this. At the moment it’s a difficult path we tread, not everyone’s cut out for being chased around the world with no direction. Some of Mabel’s friends might be able to help when we’re building the portal. Until then, it’s better to keep it to just me and Paz. And Mabel for now.”

Quattro cradled his chin in thought. “There’s one person you seem to be forgetting. I’m sure she’d want to help if you only asked.”

“Who? Who are you talking about?”

“I thought it would be obvious.” Quattro pointed up at Mason’s head. He reached up and felt the old lumberjack hat he was wearing. “I might not have been around after that party at the shack, but I just know Wendy would be up for helping you out.”

“Oh, I never thought… it’s been so long…” Unlike his slow decay with Mabel, there had been no disdain between him and Wendy as they slowly dropped out of contact. She’d spent more and more time away from Gravity Falls, heading off to start a new life in Portland. Then when he and Pacifica had moved, they’d limited their contact with their old friends even more. He couldn’t honestly remember the last time he’d spoken to Wendy face to face. Then there was the added complication of his childhood crush, and how Pacifica would relate to the redhead.

He took off the hat and looked at it. “Something to remember me by,” that’s what she’d said at the end of the first summer. Maybe it would be worth getting in touch, he’d seen first-hand how well she could handle this dangerous lifestyle. “I’ll think about Quat, really. That reminds me. What about _you_ and Wendy? Do you still have feelings for her, after all this time?” Mason knew it had been hard for the clone to move on. He’d been made as a copy his own brain that night at the Shack, fixated on his crush for Wendy above all else. That instruction had been copied over to all the clones and had proven hard to shake even after many years.

Quattro blushed at the question. Mason thought that must be how Pacifica and Mabel often saw him, that same awkwardness. “Well, I’ve moved on from Wendy, I can say that at least. I kinda have a crush on someone else now.”

Mason slapped him on the back. “That’s great Quat! You’ve overcome that big issue. So, who’s the lucky lady who’s the object of your affection?”

“Uh, this is gonna sound weird, but you know Wendy has three brothers, right?”

“Yeeeeees…”

“Well, I can’t stop thinking about one of them, he’s so handsome! That red hair, and the muscles, woof.”

Now it was Mason’s turn to blush. This raised questions about feelings Mason had never even thought about in himself. Not to mention the fact that his clone was stuck permanently as a child, unable to have a proper romantic relationship even if he wanted it. He was pondering what this all meant for his own ideas about sexuality. His sister of course would flagrantly flirt with anything that moved, but he’d never really considered the idea much himself. 

He saw that Quattro was looking uncomfortable though, so he laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Hey, this still a big improvement. If you can manage to hold down a steady job doing what you love, I think you can say you’ve gotten over it. I’m always here if you need someone to talk to, someone who knows you better than anyone else.”

Quattro relaxed, then breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thanks Dip. Now it’s time we get down to business.” They finally arrived at a small room near the back of the cluster of tents. The fact that the whole circus was covered was a boon to Quattro, whose body would fall apart if it came into contact with any fluids, such as rainwater.

The small tent held nothing but a large blocky shape covered by a sheet. Quattro held on and prepared to tug it loose. “Say hello to Meredith.” With a flourish he cast the sheet aside, revealing a large freestanding tank of water with transparent plexiglass sides.

Mason peered through the foggy water. He caught a glimpse of something moving through the water, a slithering, scaly tail. He thought for a moment it was a shark, and wondered what Quattro deemed so important. Then he saw a humanoid form swimming beside the tail. No, wait. Connected to the tail!

Suddenly a face pressed against the glass, making Mason jump back. It was the face of a girl with prominent cheekbones and an elfin grin. Long brown hair floated around her head. Her smile dropped as she looked at Mason for longer. “Wait, you’re not Quattro?”

“A mer-person! Wow, it’s been, god, 15 years since I last saw one of you!” Mason stood away, letting Quattro approach the glass.

“You’ve met my kind before?” the confused mermaid asked. Mason noticed a slight tinge of a Russian accent to the girl’s voice.

“Yeah, I practically had a mer-man brother-in-law for a short while.” He winked at Quattro, but the clone looked blankly back. “Oh right, that was _after_ you were made, I always forget that.”

Quattro pressed a hand on the glass side of the tank and Meredith reciprocated from within. “We found her beached on the edge of town. My people, the folks who work for the circus, they brought her to me to look after. This is what I’ve been doing on the side for the last few years. Finding supernatural creatures in need and aiding them on their way. It helps when you’re already running a circus full of bizarre and fantastical sights. Easy cover.”

Mason looked at the clone with a newfound admiration. “Like an Underground Railroad for monsters? That’s incredible! Hello, Meredith. I’m, uh, Dipper.” Again, that word felt strange coming from his own lips.

The mermaid looked to Quattro for confirmation and he nodded. “Dipper’s family, you can trust him. He has a lot of experience helping out people like us.”

“Nice to meet you Dipper. Any friend of Quattro is a friend of mine.”

Mason found himself bowing, not knowing how else to react. “If I can help out in any way, I’ll try. What’s this got to do with Selchen then?”

Meredith scowled. “That man is the reason I’m here. A few years ago he illegally dumped several barrels of waste into the Caspian Sea. It disturbed my clan’s nest. He discovered our existence, and ever since has desired to hunt us down. Whether for sport or out of malice against our kind I cannot say.”

“That’s horrible! No wonder you hate him so much, you were right to show me this Quat.”

“There’s more, Dipper,” the clone responded. “Meredith wasn’t alone before she ended up on that beach.”

“My brothers were taken! Reports from others of my kind told us that Selchen has a vile room in his building for keeping us prisoner. We have to get them out of there!”

Mason pulled out his journal, consulting the scant notes on the Vechnyy building given to him by Mabel. “Hmm, there’s a storage wing in the building. My portal part and your brothers could both be held there.”

Quattro reached into his suit and pulled out a letter. “I tried inquiring to Selchen directly. I guess I hoped he might be reasonable. He just brushed me off with this note.” He handed it to Mason, who skim-read it.

It basically just listed a series of half-hearted apologies that more information couldn’t be given out. The same corporate drivel one usually got when prying into any major company. It was hand signed by Anton Selchen himself though. Perhaps Quattro’s investigation had rattled the billionaire?

Mason turned to look at Meredith through the glass. “I promise you, me and my team will find your family. I must say, it’s fascinating to meet another Mer-specimen after so long.” He started sketching her in his journal. “You’re quite beautiful, you know.”

“Easy there tiger, you’re a taken man.” Mason flinched as he felt Pacifica’s hand on his shoulder.

“Paz! Uh, I meant beautiful from a scientific perspective, not in that way, no. Oh boy.”

Pacifica bent over laughing. “It’s fine Mace, I get it. Just don’t get too carried away with Ariel over here. Hey there Little Dipper,” she called over to Quattro over Mason’s shoulder, who gave a small wave.

Mason finished his partial sketch of the mermaid and put his journal away. “What are you doing here anyway, Paz? Did you and Mabel learn anything?”

Pacifica presented the documents she’d acquired regarding Selchen. “I got these. You won’t believe where I got them though.” When she explained how they’d bumped into Eli, Mason’s jaw dropped. “I know, crazy coincidence.”

“How come they’re not with you now? Are they planning the infiltration?”

“Not, uh, not quite. Eli won’t be infiltrating anything other than _‘cough’your sister‘cough’_.”__

“What… did you say?” Mason had to stop his eyes widening even further. Mermaids and paper clones were one thing, but what his sister was getting up to right now took the cake.

Pacifica grimaced and nodded. “Yeeeeeeah, they’re doing it in Eli’s apartment. I was lucky to get out of there with my dignity intact. They were going at it like rabbits!”

“I don’t need all the details Paz, I know how it works!” He regretted saying that so loudly, as Quattro had to cover up a massive blush. “This is what I was talking about. Mabel’s a liability, she can’t keep her eyes on the prize for more than five minutes without going off and screwing someone. Arg, whatever, let’s just see what her not-boyfriend brought us.”

He flicked through the papers, looking appreciatively at the building layout map. It even marked a number of secret passages, a bit like the ones he remembered finding in the old Northwest Manor. Then he turned over the sales contract. His eyes fell upon the signature. He let out an audible gasp. “No, it can’t be…”

“What Mace, what is it?” Pacifica looked past him at the document but couldn’t see anything blatantly wrong. It was just legalese and sales terms.

Mason set down the stack of paper and grabbed the letter Quattro had received. “But if they’re the same, then it must be… all the details match… he’s a fraud…”

“Ugh, I hate it when you do this Mason.” She grabbed her husband’s shoulders and turned him to face her. “What have you found?”

“The signatures! Look at them?”

She did as he asked, seeing the looping strokes of Selchen’s name. “So what? The man has distinctive penmanship.”

“This letter was written when, Quattro? The last week or so?” The clone nodded and Mason continued. “And this is the _original_ Vechnyy building purchase document. The purchase that took place in 1837…”

Pacifica finally twigged what he’d seen. “Yet the signatures are identical on each. So this document must be a forgery!”

“Exactly!” He tucked all the sheets of paper into Journal 7. “We need to go to him directly. With these we have all the leverage we need to get him to tell us where the other Mer-people are being held. I doubt he wants this little secret put to light. Let’s get back to Mabel. If she’s done messing around we can get back to work.”

“Right.” Pacifica nodded, then waved to Quattro and Meredith. “We’ll let you know once we have solid intel. Good seeing you again Quat, you’re looking quite dapper in that suit.”

“Aw, it’s nothing.” He looked proud to have been complimented by her though, a look she knew well enough from the original Mason.

The couple headed out of the circus and back towards the main square. With all the delay at the circus, by the time they reached Eli’s apartment it was empty. Mabel had left them a note. She was going to the Vechnyy building on her own. With Eli in tow.

* * *

Before Mason and Pacifica had arrived, Mabel had spent the time getting reacquainted with Eli. Very closely reacquainted. “Oh god Eli, yes, right there! Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! Oooohhhh yeah.”

Mabel fell back, having reached her peak. She landed on Eli’s chest, sprawled out under where she’d been straddling him. “Woah, easy there, not too rough,” Eli called out. Mabel’s vast reserves of energy could occasionally backfire when she got a little too ‘excited’. He had a couple of ‘love bruises’ from Mabel jumping on him too vigorously in the past.

Now Mabel cuddled up beside him, the pair of them still naked under the sheets. Despite that, neither of them were cold anymore, their activities had seen to that.

Mabel ran her hand over Eli’s bare chest. It was nice to cuddle up to someone, given how frosty her interactions with Mason and Pacifica had been in the past month. All this physical contact was a revelation.

Compared to their slow, patient, sappy romance, Mabel’s motivations today had been driven by a baser animalistic lust. It had been quick and passionate and wild, so now she was enjoying a quiet respite.

“I think we could all do with a rest. Dip and Paz too. They need to relax a bit, not rush about so much.”

“What exactly are you guys doing anyway? I get the idea there’s more to this than just a really weird tourist route. You said something about Pacifica having dreams?”

Mabel nodded, not thinking to hold anything back. “Yeah, we’re on a sort of quest. Looking for certain technical parts, and also looking for magical stuff. That might have some answers.”

Eli scratched his cheek. “Magic, eh? Your brother always was into some weird shit back in high school.”

“Don’t I know it. Sometimes I think he loves his journals more than me.” She absent-mindedly drummed her fingers on Eli’s belly, slightly lost in thought.

Eli cupped her cheek and stared deep into her eyes. “Your brother probably has a strong desire to get back to the quiet life he had before this adventure. He thinks that the faster he can ‘solve’ the big mystery, the faster this can all go back to normal for him. But I think he’s also using that to ignore you, hiding in his books to avoid confrontation. The man that hides his true feelings away is likely the man who feels the most.”

“That’s so deep,” Mabel said with awe. Her hand reached lower down the sheets almost without her thinking about, bringing a small yelp when she reached a particularly sensitive area below Eli’s waist. “I think that’s almost enough to deserve another round.” Her tone was more breathy now, and she kissed him hard on the mouth. 

She began exploring deeply with her tongue, but then Eli pulled away. “Hey, May. I think maybe first we should focus on Selchen, on Vechnyy.”

“Boo, party pooper.” She blew a raspberry in his face, then grinned. “What do you have in mind then? Shall we try the old smash ‘n grab plan, in and out in five minutes? Lol, just like you were with me in bed a moment ago.”

She managed to make her friend blush, but he continued. “I want to see Selchen brought down. We both know how skewed the news he puts out is. And if he has this ‘portal’ piece you need, then all’s the better.”

“Wow, you really have gone all in with this proactive stuff.” She got out of bed and stretched her arms and legs, still quite naked. “What about the others? Shouldn’t we wait for them to get back from the circus or whatever they’re doing?”

“Maybe this once you and me could try it? You could let me see first-hand why people are so intimidated by the great May Pines. We can show your brother and friend that you’re an important part of the team too!”

“That is _such_ a smart idea!” She shoved his side playfully. “Eli, where have you been in my life for the last few weeks!”

“Just… waiting for a good opportunity.” Mabel puffed out her cheeks and tried to figure out what he meant by that. Eli stood up decisively to head out, then remembered he wasn’t wearing any clothes either. Grabbing Mabel’s red scarf and holding it between his legs, he goofily tried to find where Mabel had tossed his clothes.

Chuckling at the sight, Mabel forgot about his odd statement, then got up to join him in his nude scavenger hunt.

* * *

“Great, we missed them!” Mason scrunched up the note the pair of hooligans had left and threw it aside. “They’ve gone to get into the Vechnyy building somehow. That rather leaves the rest of us ‘up the fucking creek’.”

Pacifica checked over the documents Eli had provided. Strange that he hadn’t wanted to take them with him on his and Mabel’s break-in. She analysed the two matching signatures again. Her eye for detail confirmed they were indeed identical.

“We’ll just have to go to Selchen ourselves. If those two have gotten into any trouble, we can just blackmail him.”

Mason nodded. “She never fails to disappoint me, I think for one minute that Mabel’ll do the sensible thing, then she goes and has sex and runs off with the first person she knows. So much for wanting to ‘reconnect’ with me.” He strode out of the apartment, deeply disappointed in his sister.

The couple headed out past the still riled-up crowd of protestors. Mabel and Eli were nowhere in sight, possibly already inside the building. It was nearly sunset, and the weather would be even more brutal after dark.

Since there was no time to formulate any kind of infiltration plan, Mason simply walked up to the main entrance. Facing down the armoured guards lining the perimeter of the building, he presented the sheaf of documents and stood tall to present some confidence. Pacifica noticed that it wasn’t just an act, he was possessed by that same fiery self-assurance he often demonstrated on Mystery Hunts.

Mason demanded that the guards let him in to see Selchen, that he’d regret it if they weren’t allowed to pass. Pacifica didn’t think it was going to work. The guards seemed to share sideways glances, as if to say ‘get a load of this idiot’. They didn’t care about anything he had to say.

It looked like they were about to dismiss the pair of them, when at that moment yet another fortuitous coincidence fell into the Pines’ lap. A black limo pulled along behind the wall of guards and a well-dressed man stepped out. He had a smug smile on his face and opened his arms to greet Pacifica. “Miss Northwest, my darling. How pleasant to find you in such an unpleasant crowd!”

“Oh no. Mason… meet Gabriel Crane.”

Mason stared dumbfounded as the arms dealer, who was possibly in league with the Black Hole and working against them, shook his hand with a tight grip. “Mr Pines, what a joy to finally meet face to face. I’m sure we’re going to get along like a house on fire.”

It turned out that Selchen’s ‘big deal’ was some kind of liaison with Crane’s organisation. Mason and Pacifica were taken by Crane into the building. They passed through a richly decorated lobby, then up into a private drawing room. It reminded Pacifica of her old mansion, though slightly smaller. Crane instructed them to sit opposite a lavish wooden desk. He stood behind it, then they all waited for Selchen to arrive.

Mason was silent stewing in his chair, prepared for his moment to spring the incriminating evidence and bring this whole operation down. Pacifica was more concerned with Crane’s appearance here in Russia. He’d been after portal components in Venice too, the connection was obvious.

“You two are in for a heap of trouble.” Crane addressed them from across the desk. “I don’t know what you thought you were doing, coming in here so blindly, but perhaps it will benefit Anton and myself. We still need what you took from Venice after all.”

“You’ll never get your hands on that. Whatever little schemes you’re playing at, they end today.” Mason still felt smug and in control. All Crane had was words.

A voice came from the back of the room. “Quite the contrary Mr Pines. Our schemes started long ago and will end far from now.” Mason and Pacifica turned to see the news mogul himself, striding in with a cane. Selchen sat slowly behind the desk, steepling his bony fingers and regarding them.

Crane put his hand on Selchen’s shoulder. “My dear Anton, so good to see you again. My sources report a positive sighting of the Heart in the continental US, and we’ve heard some interesting developments from Hettie."

“That is very good, heh, news.”

Next to Crane’s neatly perfect skin and hair, Selchen was just skin stretched over a bag of bones. His shrivelled face stared at them with contempt. “Your sister was once quite the thorn in my side. It seems to run in the family.”

Mason smiled smugly. “Coming from a couple of corrupt businessmen, I’ll take that as a compliment. Tell me Selchen, is there a specific cream you use to stay looking so youthful, or are you sustained on spite alone?”

Pacifica rolled her eyes. “Oh for heaven’s sake Mason, just get to the damn point already.”

“Hmm, alright Paz.” He placed the two relevant documents on the desk. “Gentlemen, this is what I wanted to show you. Absolute proof that Mr Selchen’s claim on this building is fake, and that we can have you investigated for this.”

Crane and Selchen’s eyes briefly met, and they exchanged small smiles. Mason didn’t like that look, it was like they knew something. “Uh, exhibit A, this letter received in response to a query from Alcor’s circus. Exhibit B, the original document of purchase for the building. Both documents signed by Selchen’s own hand. Care to explain?”

The businessman looked back and forth at each other. Then they burst out laughing. That hadn’t been the response Mason was after. “Don’t you get it? This is proof positive that you’ve committed a crime!”

“You think it’s a forgery! How quaint.” Crane shook his head dismissively. “It seems I gave you two more credit that I thought. You clearly know nothing.”

Pacifica studied these two men, who were lording it over her husband. Mason’s confidence was rapidly draining away. Pacifica at least was used to domineering rich people trying to use their influence on her. “Alright then, what’s so funny about these documents then?”

Selchen grabbed a fountain pen off the desk and scribbled his signature onto a new scrap of paper. It was once again the same as the previous two examples. “The reason the signatures are the same, is because I’m the one who signed these papers. It’s that simple.”

“But this purchase document is from the 1830s? You can’t have been around…”

“Oh, but I was. A much younger man I was back then. A shame I left my good looks in that decade too.”

“Oh, it wasn’t all bad if I remember rightly Anton. Not a bad decade by any stretch of the imagination.”

Mason waved a hand to get their attention. “Wait, you’re honestly saying you two were around in the 1800s? But that would make you both almost 200 years old?!”

Pacifica’s eyes suddenly widened. “No, it can’t be.”

Selchen slowly clapped. “I do believe she’s got it my dear Gabriel.”

“If you really did sign this original document, and you’ve been around that long, then that means you aren’t just ordinary humans.”

“Paz, what are you getting at-“

“Hush Mason. I saw it before, the Vechnyy logo. It was in the shape of an A. A for a-mortal!”

Mason and Pacifica turned their heads in unison to look at the two businessmen, who were now flashing their teeth in wide grins. “Oh bravo Mrs Pines. Now you’ve figured it out, we can finally begin properly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone wondering about Quattro's status quo, I originally wrote more of his story in my previous fic, The Mystery Teens 2: Seasons of Change, specifically in this chapter:
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/19368541/chapters/47559451


	13. The Strange

“It’s never that easy, is it?”

Mabel watched the footage from the CCTV camera, Anton Selchen’s office laid out on the image before her. The billionaire had been joined by another man Mabel couldn’t make out on the low-quality screen. Opposite the desk they were seated behind were two people she’d recognise anywhere. Mason and Pacifica hadn’t taken long to get captured.

Unlike those two, who’d basically been screwed the moment Gabriel Crane had showed up, Mabel had a much easier time getting into the Vechnyy building. Wearing a simple lanyard with a photo ID around her neck, she’d been able to pass Eli and herself off as journalists working for Selchen. Once inside and unsupervised they’d had the run of the building.

“_This is insane, I’ve never encountered a real a-mortal directly. It’d be fascinating if we weren’t currently tied to these chairs._” There was Mason, always in ‘journal investigation mode’, even face to face with a threat.

“_Let us go! You can’t just hold us here, we have rights!_” Pacifica, at her imperious best, was defiantly staring down the two men. Mabel knew that look was a frightening one when seen in person. There had been plenty of times when it had been turned on herself after all.

Mabel’s blood boiled when she heard the next speaker. “_In good time Mrs Pines. Perhaps you’d like to explain why you’re so interested in coming into my building first. I do so hate mortals prying into my personal life._” 

Selchen. His propaganda machine was still turning out page after page of outrights lies, casting so many causes she fought for in a negative light. He was spinning the protests in Makhachkala right now, making the righteous crowds out into little more that blood-hungry rioters. She hoped she’d get a chance to stick a fist in him somewhere painful.

“_Are you talking about the mer-people?_” Mabel’s ears pricked up at Mason’s words. Mer-people? So there was more going on that just a business trade or a possible portal part. “_That’s right, we know all about that. You have to let them go, it’s barbaric what you’re doing._”

“_They’re not even human, child. Simply my playthings to do with as I please._”

Mabel could make out that both Mason and Pacifica were staring daggers at the man. It made her chuckle seeing them so defiant. It was like they were on her side, trying to do the same things she’d been doing for the last 5 years, fighting against corruption.

“_And you, you’re no better_” Mason was addressing the other suited man that Mable couldn’t recognise. “_We know all about your little lapdog, chasing us back and forth_.”

“_I’m sure I have no earthly idea of what you speak, dear boy_,” a British accented voice said, feigning ignorance.

“_Yeah, sure. You’re in the dark with the rest of us. Like a black hole, for instance._” 

The British man raised one eyebrow, but otherwise stayed composed. “_Quite a yarn you spin. Let’s both stop pretending though. You came to this place for one reason alone. For the dynamic coherence ring._

Mabel could guess what that technobabble meant by Mason’s gasp. It was the item that Mabel’s sources had told her about, Selchen’s component they could use to help construct the portal.

Pacifica asked a question. “_Alright, you know about that. You were after a similar technical piece in Venice. So you’re trying to build the same thing as us. Can I ask you why? Why are you trying to assemble it? I could do with some answers._”

The two a-mortals shared a look, then the British one answered. “_To fight our greatest fear._”

“Well that’s helpful,” Mabel said, rolling her eyes.

On the screen, Mason performed a very similar action. “_Super helpful there, Crane._” 

Mabel heard Eli chuckling beside her. “Man, you two really are twins.”

Mabel was thinking too hard to respond to her ‘more than a friend’ right now. Her brother had called the British man 'Crane'. Now she could see it, the slicked back hair could belong to only one man. The arms merchant was the one dealing with Selchen? She couldn’t stand men like Crane, getting rich off the backs of death and destruction.

“_What do you young ones know about this tech anyway? It’s a bit beyond a random architect and astronomer._” Selchen had his arms crossed in a smug expression. He was humouring Mason and Pacifica, using it merely as a chance to boost his own ego.

Mason scrunched up his face, already expecting to be mocked for whatever he said. Pacifica though was more pensive, having already met an a-mortal before, and having been more directly confronted by visions of the portal. “_We’re trying to gather the tech to build a device that might… might help us save the world… from something, maybe… Gah, I hate these vague dreams sometimes!_”

The a-mortals seemed slightly confused, but then took control of the conversation again. Crane started heading for the door. “_It hardly matters now. Selchen will find out whether you have any more valuable artefacts or information. I have projects to attend to elsewhere. No more thieves or saboteurs. Now we have the two of you, we’ve eliminated our competition._”

After Crane left, Selchen got the couple on their feet and headed out an opposite door, deeper into the building. “_You really wanted to see my mermaids? I think it’s time you shared their prison then._” The figures left the camera’s sight.

Eli tried several channels but couldn’t pick them up on any of the other cameras. They must be in a highly secure area of the building, behind closed doors that the public would never access. “What do we do now, May?”

Mabel played Crane’s last sentence over again in her head. Crane had said ‘two of you’. Which meant he didn’t know about her and Eli. Maybe there was a small chance of getting everyone out of here. 

“We rescue them, of course.”

* * *

Hands bound, Mason and Pacifica were led down the hallways of the manor, Selchen prodding them with his cane if they fell behind. As they walked through the luxuriously maintained corridors of the building, Pacifica could only wonder if all rich people who owned mansions had to be secretly terrible people.

Mason was getting tired of being funnelled through the building, so turned to face their captor. “Look, it doesn't have to be like this. Sure, you’re really really old, but we’re not your enemy. We didn’t even know who you were when we started our journey!”

The wizened old man shook his head. “You know now, that’s what’s important. You will aid us with all you know about this ‘portal’, then you will be discarded. This is the way of all mortals.”

Pacifica turned now, facing the businessman with a pointed look. “Explain something to me, Selchen. Crane and the other a-mortal I met were both really young, good looking. How come you’re a walking flesh-bag?”

He chuckled ruefully. “Not all a-mortals stay young forever. It’s not a linear process, learning how to live forever. While we are all a-mortals, not all of us use the same techniques to maintain ourselves. So, the beauty of youth has been lost to me.” Selchen ran his hand suggestively over Pacifica’s cheek to emphasise his point.

She recoiled and spat out at him. “I had enough of that from creepy old guys when I was a kid. My parents liked to use me as a shiny toy at parties. So you’d better back off, cause I like to fight back these days.”

“Oho, a fighter are you? Perhaps you can provide some sport after all then. I’ll put you with the mermaids and watch you sink or swim.”

A reverberation of static came from an unseen speaker. Selchen looked up in concern.

“Testing, testing, one two three. Hello? Is this thing on? Ah, thanks Eli.” Mabel’s voice came clear as day. “This is May Pines on the horn, coming to you live from inside the Vechnyy building!”

Pacifica raised her hands in triumph. “Ha, I’ve never been happier to hear that voice! You go May!”

“What is this!?” Selchen pulled open one of the wood panels lining the hall, revealing a tangle of wires and a small display screen. He tapped an intercom under the screen, trying to take control of the feed. All that happened was an image of the Vechnyy logo was replaced as Mabel’s face flashed up on the screen.

“This broadcast should be visible on that big jumbotron out in the square. Can you hear me?” she shouted. Then the couple heard a loud chant of “Yes we can!” coming from outside.

“No no no! She’s going to mess everything up!” Selchen was panicking now, so pushed Mason and Pacifica to get them moving again. “We’ve got to move before she does something like-“

“And thanks to my amazing super-duper hacking skills, I just unlocked the front door of this manor!”

“Hacking skills?” Pacifica mouthed to Mason, who could only shrug in response. It must have been something she picked up in the last few years.

Mabel addressed the crowd directly, smiling out of her screen. “You folks have probably heard of me, so believe me when I say Selchen is doing bad things in here. Come on in and spread some chaos!” There was a loud buzz, which could mean only one thing. Mabel had been true to her word, and now the main door was unlocked. Hundreds of angry protestors were about to storm the building. “And if you two need some extra motivation, meet me in the East Wing!”

The transmission cut out. Mason and Pacifica took this as their cue to act. In time with each other, they shoved into Selchen. His old frame collapsed easily under the combined weight. Once he was down they sprinted away.

Pacifica was slightly giddy from the escape, that adrenaline rush that came from Mystery Hunts flooding back. “Got to hand it to your sister, she knows how to light a spark!”

“I’m more worried about what happens to us when we’re caught in the fire.”

* * *

The East Wing was very different from the rest of the Vecnhyy building. While the West Wing and building’s centre were much unchanged from when the place had been constructed, here Selchen had made some drastic changes. The wooden panelling suddenly ended at a bare concrete wall. This whole wing of the building had been carved out, the gothic stylings gutted and turned into one large functional warehouse.

Mabel and Eli emerged on a catwalk suspended above the warehouse. Below them were stacked up crates and equipment. This was a refuge for all the ‘behind closed doors’ items Selchen had acquired for whatever his a-mortal plan was with Crane. She spied a large tank of water across the room. That must be the mer-people she’d heard them talking about.

“Look, down there.” Eli pointed down at the ground level, where far along the wall Mason and Pacifica entered the warehouse. The couple gaped up, since from their perspective the room was filled with towering items. Eli called down to them. “Hey, over here!” They heard him and waved. 

Finding a step ladder, the two of them went down to meet the couple, where Pacifica was now inspecting one of the larger crates. “It has air holes, there must be something inside.”

“It could be dangerous to open it then. We should just find our component and get out.” Mason had his journal out to check what the portal part looked like.

“Forget that, Bro-Bro,” Mabel cheerily said as she strolled up, “we should take a look inside! You know, for science.”

“Nice to see you too, Mabel.” He slammed the journal shut and scratched his forehead under Wendy’s hat. “I see you got out of bed today at last.”

“Oh hah hah, really funny.” She put her arm protectively around Eli’s. “I don’t need your condescension every time I do something for myself.”

“Ah ah ah!” Pacifica waved a hand between the arguing twins. “No bickering while we’re on a mission. Selchen could be back any minute with guards. Mabel, how’d you get in here?”

She flashed her lanyard. “I used my journalist cred, it was super easy.”

“_You’re_ a journalist? Since when?” Pacifica crossed her arms doubtfully.

“Well, I told you I’ve published a couple of zines before.” She waved her hand in an ‘eh’ motion. “Hey, I may be a fake journalist, but at least I report the truth! Not like Anton the a-mortal.”

“Ah, you heard all that, good. Then you can help us with the mer-people extraction.” Mason opened his journal again, retrieving the folded up building plans Eli had given them. “Hmm, this document’s not that useful actually. This part of the manor’s been completely overhauled. We’ll have to search this place on foot. Not an easy task.”

“Way ahead of you, me and Eli saw the fish tank from above. We’ll show you the way.” The four of them navigated through the haphazardly sorted room, weaving around stacks of crates to reach the mer-people.

Pacifica caught up to Mabel at one point. “So you’re a hacker now too? That’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah, that’s thanks to Dad. He taught me all the best programming tips!” Pacifica remembered that the twins’ father had worked in computers. She’d never known that either twin had ever taken an interest before. “How about you, you found out about mer-people? Was that something you learnt at the circus.”

Pacifica smiled. “Yeah, it was. We met another old friend there. One Quattro Alcor.”

Mabel’s eyes widened. “Kumquat’s here! That’s so cool! I haven’t seen him since ’25, we met up in Spain. Maybe we can chill with him after this if we have time.”

Pacifica nodded. She’d like some time to rest as well.

They came to the edge of the water tank. It was much like the one in Quattro’s circus tent. Mason rapped on the glass, hoping to see the trapped mer-people through the foggy water.

Eli was looking at the tank doubtfully. “They’re not actually real mermaids, right? I mean, that’d be totally crazy.” Mason remembered that he’d never encountered something supernatural, so tried to soften the upcoming shock.

“Now, Eli, you’re gonna see some strange things soon, but don’t panic. Everything is completely explainable. Take things slowly-“

“Holy shit!” Eli pointed at the tank behind Mason, where a pair of faces had appeared, long scaly tails trailing behind them. There were looks of stress and exhaustion visible on their faces through the water, and their bony chests showed they were clearly starving.

Mason rested a hand on the glass and gestured over to Eli with a knowing look. “It’s ok, he’s just a tourist. I’m here to get you out, Meredith sent me.” 

The two brothers perked up instantly on hearing that name. “She’s alive?! Thank mer-god for that!” This mer-man puffed out his chest and continued in his regal voice. “I am Merrick, and this is my brother, Mervin.”

“Hey dudes,” the other mer-man waved lazily. His voice sounded like a surfer. “You might wanna check out the other crates, this Selchen dude has some bad mojo.”

Pacifica looked smug as her and Mason finally pried open the sides of one of the cages, a large box around 10 feet tall. She’d been right that there was something alive residing within. As the wooden side of the crate fell away, they saw bars inside. The crate was surrounding a metal cage.

Mason shone a light into the cage, and the group huddled to around to get a better look. Nestled up against the far wall was a multi-headed snake like creature. Except several of the heads didn’t end in reptilian features, they were rather more wolf-like.

Mabel gasped. “A real life Scylla. From the Greek myths!” When she received a pair of surprised glances from the couple, she rolled her eyes. “What? I read it in Paz’s book.”

She shrugged and went to check a much smaller crate. This one held a glass case, inside which sat a Micro-roo, a fuzzy miniature cousin of the much larger marsupial. They found that many more of the crates held captive creatures. It wasn’t the first time they’d come across supernatural beings in such bondage, but it always sickened the Pines. Eli just seemed overwhelmed, content to chat amiably enough with the two mer-men as if he could cling to ‘most normal’ thing in the room.

The rest of the crates in the room were piled high with random parts, screws and bolts, circuit boards and wires. Crane and Selchen seemed serious about building a portal. Mason pocketed any small parts that looked like they might help, then searched for the one part they’d specifically come looking for, the dynamic coherence ring that Crane had mentioned.

He had a copy of a diagram showing the ring pasted into Journal 7, it showed a simple circle of metal. He was expecting a tiny component, something to link part of the circuitry together perhaps. Pacifica eventually tugged at his sleeve and pulled him over to where she’d found the component.

He craned his head upwards to take in the whole ring, leaning against the warehouse wall. It was taller than he was. “Oh wow! It’s part of the central portal aperture. We’re gonna have to speak to Quattro about getting this transported.”

“Can he move all these captured creatures too? It seems like a lot of work.”

“Well, his operation seemed quite efficient from what I saw of it. The kid’s really come into his own.”

“That’s cute. Although…” Pacifica looked away. “It’s nothing.”

Mason looked at her quizzically. “What?”

“You know. Seeing him. A smaller version of you. Reminds me that-“

“AHH!” Mabel screamed across the room. Mason and Pacifica abandoned their conversation and ran over. Selchen had his arm around Mabel’s neck. She was struggling fiercely, but the man’s bony arm had her trapped in a vice-like grip. “Get your hands off me, you capitalist pig!”

“Wow, I’m glad we met when you were younger,” Pacifica said, somewhat inappropriately trying to lighten the mood. “You’d have hated me and my family even more these days.”

Mabel chuckled despite her situation, but Selchen tightened his grip. “Your friends are running riot through my precious building, Miss Pines. Stealing files, tearing the place up. My guards are overwhelmed! How can I be expected to run a news channel when you ingrate mortals won’t listen?!”

“Let me go!” Mabel tried to raise her gauntlet, but Selchen noticed and took hold of her arm.

“Ah, and how ironic for you to break in here disguised as a fake journalist.”

“At least I always printed the truth, unlike you!”

Selchen laughed, a hollow, dusty sound. “Pah, what is truth, but an interpretation of reality. Control the spread of news and you control the truth that people see. Our world is cruel and fated to die. Was I wrong to spread that through my news?! Huh?!”

He tightened more around Mabel’s neck, eliciting a frightened whimper. Mabel didn’t like showing that kind of weakness to people like Selchen, who used fear to exploit innocent people. Mason and Pacifica felt powerless to help her.

“Huh, am I a monster?! I’ve lived for countless centuries, watching humanity squabble over pointless resources or ideologies. If I’ve lead people down a different path by influencing them, then so be it! Are you going to stop me!? Huh?! Are you?!”

Mabel shuddered as a loud crack blasted through the warehouse. Selchen’s grip tensed up for a moment. She looked up at his face. He was in pure shock, his mouth agape. Pale pink blood was trickling down his forehead from a bullet hole. His arm slipped away from Mabel and he tumbled the floor. Mabel covered her mouth as she watched his fragile body crumple. Suppressing tears, she whirled around.

Holding a gun in his outstretched arm, Eli’s face was set in a grim determination. “Stopped him.” None of the trio quite knew how to react. Selchen was their enemy, sure. But to see his lifeless body lying there was more than any of them were willing to stomach.

Finally, Mabel choked out a few words. “I thought he couldn’t die. He was supposed live forever.”

Mason held his sister’s hand, the most tender he’d been with her since reuniting. “He wasn’t unkillable, just ‘stubborn’. He wouldn’t die from natural causes, but a deliberate attack…” He trailed off.

Mabel swallowed and pulled herself together. She’d seen worse in the last five years, she could handle this. She looked over at Eli, who’d tucked the gun away. “Thanks E… I guess. God, this is a rough situation.”

Eli looked genuinely remorseful. “He was hurting you, I couldn’t let him do that anymore! The world is a better place without him in it.” He narrowed his eyes as he regarded the feeble body. “Sorry,” he quickly added, seeing Mabel’s discomfort. “Pacifica, can you check the warehouse is sealed. I think we’re ok, but I don’t want all those protestors coming in here.”

“Uh, sure.” Pacifica did as he asked, slightly taken aback. He was acting strangely confident all of a sudden. He’d even remembered her name. As he’d seemed to know, all the doors connecting the warehouse to the rest of the building were sealed. Their way out was a small service door leading outside. They could escape while avoiding any publicity on Selchen’s ‘curios’ in the East Wing getting out.

Eli headed out first to make sure the coast was clear. Before the Pines left, they took one last look at Selchen’s body. Then they turned, to get Quattro and rescue all of the poor things trapped in this a-mortal’s private menagerie.

* * *

Trying to get her thoughts composed, Pacifica was writing in her journal. Mason was focused on aiding his clone in the retrieval effort, helping get all of the creatures out. Meanwhile, Mabel had come to terms with Eli’s actions. She saw it as ‘necessary for the cause’.

Pacifica still wasn’t on board with it though. With the casual way Eli had gunned Selchen down, what little trust she had in him was gone. He was just too damn clinical about the whole thing. Right now he seemed wowed by the all the varieties of magical creature that Mabel was pointing out to him, and they took turns making names up for them. But in that moment before and after Selchen’s death he was perfectly cold and calculating.

Quattro promised Mason he’d take the utmost care of the giant portal ring, ensuring he’d hold onto it until the time came to eventually put all the portal components together. He parted fondly with the little clone, glad to have him back in his life.

Noticing Pacifica’s introspection, he headed over. “Hey Paz, everything’s sorted with this whole affair. Mabel told me her supporters really tore the rest of the building to hell.” He shook his head. “No self-control, there might have been information about his Selchen and Crane’s plans in those files.”

Pacifica stopped writing. It was mostly rambling anyway. “Crane got away. You know what that means.”

“It means the Black Hole probably knows our location.” He sighed, then put his arm around Pacifica. “So much for staying off the grid. Wherever we go next, he’ll be after us. I have some reports of stuff in India we could look into, but we’ll have to move under the radar to get there.”

“Are we equipped to fight him. If it comes to that?”

“Well, Mabel’s excellent at riling up a crowd, so we have that in our favour.”

Pacifica pulled his hat down over his eyes. “Don’t be mean Mace, if it wasn’t for her we’d still be prisoners. So would they.”

Mason uncovered his eyes and saw what Pacifica was pointing at. Eli and Mabel were wheeling a tank of water into the tent. Jumping for joy, Merrick and Mervin leapt into Meredith’s tank, and the three reunited siblings swam around happily together.

Mason couldn’t resist a smile. Despite Mabel’s recklessness, families had been brought back together today. All of the creatures moved into the circus now, Mabel lifted Quattro up and brought him over to the couple via a piggyback. Her hand was linked with Eli’s.

Neither Mason nor Pacifica could really figure out what status their relationship was in at this point. They doubted that even Mabel knew herself. She lowered a giggling Quattro down. “We did it Quat, total mission success achieved!”

The young clone was smiling, but his eyes had a hint of sadness. “Does that mean you have to go now? To the rest of your top secret ‘quest’?”

They all smiled sympathetically, since it was clear that Quattro would be sad to see them go. Mason solemnly nodded. “Afraid so little bud, we have to get moving to outrun any pursuers. Hopefully we can get this over and done with soon.” He said this confidently, although he knew they’d barely collected a third of what they’d need to build the portal. He just wanted this whole thing finished.

“Have you thought about what we talked about earlier? About going it alone?” 

Mason’s eyes flicked up once more to his lumberjack hat. He smiled warmly. “I’ll consider getting in touch with Wendy.” He noticed Mabel failing to suppress a faint squeal at hearing that name. “I was wondering about other support too.” He turned to face Eli, who looked stunned to be in Mason’s spotlight. “How about it Eli? You seem like you can handle yourself. Mabel clearly trusts you wholeheartedly.” His eyes met Pacifica’s as he panned around the group. Though she was still outwardly smiling, he detected a look of doubt in her eyes.

Eli shook his head slowly but was amiable about it. “Nah Mason, I’m honoured, really. These weird creatures though, they’re not for me. I’ll stick around and follow the protests, like May used to do.” He took Mabel’s other hand and stared into her eyes. Mason and Pacifica could already tell what was coming next, as Mabel threw her arms around his neck and spent what seemed like an eternity kissing him goodbye, not sparing their tongues.

“I’ll miss you soooooooooo much Eli! You too Quattro! Sooooooooooo much!” She hugged the clone warmly, then went back to Eli. “I would say stay safe, but you’ll probably be way more safer than the three of us.” 

Pacifica was secretly grateful. She didn’t think adding another person to their team dynamic would be helpful right now. It would only exacerbate the strain between the twins.

Eli gripped Mabel’s shoulder one last time. “See you round May. Maybe once you’re done we can… I don’t know… figure things out about… us.”

Mabel nodded, unusually lost for words. She was also unsure what exactly she wanted from Eli. Had their passionate reunion been fuelled by real feelings, or just an outlet for the sense of longing that she couldn’t satisfy with Mason and Pacifica? “You’re right. We’ll figure things out afterwards.”

* * *

After the trio had left, Quattro spent the evening preparing for the circus’ imminent departure. The mer-folk had been gratefully returned to the Caspian Sea, and now he needed to tour around and return all of Selchen’s other captured beings.

He was sweeping up in the now unoccupied water tank tent, when he heard the brush of a tent flap. Preparing to once again have to scare off a cheap visitor, he stood up as tall as he could. He relaxed when he saw that his intruder was none other than Eli, Mabel’s hanger-on from earlier. “Oh, hi Eli. Did you wanna help with moving the circus?”

“Not quite. You’re a strange one Quattro, I have to say. It’s a strange world though.”

“Heh, yeah.” He rubbed his neck awkwardly, not sure how to relate to the older man.

“I have to ask a favour of you. I need to know where the Pines went.”

“Why? Can’t you just call up Mabel and ask?”

“They’ve already left town. It’s a bit trickier than that as well. I have someone I’d like to introduce.” He held the tent flap open. There was a rustling of wind, as if someone had stepped inside, but Quattro couldn’t see anyone.

He looked around, confused. Then a figure in black armour appeared out of the air. “What the?!”

Eli held a finger to his lips, smiling and hushing the clone. The Black Hole removed his helmet with a hiss of air. Quattro’s eyes widened at the sight of the armour’s wearer beneath. His throat dried up, barely able to speak. “Oh my god. It’s you.”

The Black Hole nodded. “Hey there little man. We need to talk.”


	14. The Journey

High in the mountains was a suspended plateau of shining white. Stretching through a valley between two gargantuan peaks, the field of snow was dazzling in the brilliant unobscured sunlight. Like ants crossing a grassy field, the Pines trio were almost invisible as they hiked through the snow.

Despite the fact there were no clouds and the sun was shining brightly, the air at that altitude brought no warmth to their skin. Mason and Pacifica were still wearing their winter clothes from Russia, wrapped up tightly and only adding snow goggles to guard against the glare. Somehow Mabel was still getting by in her normal jacket and scarf.

She was pulling up the rear in their trek, while Mason was striding forwards at a fast pace she struggled to match. Each of them had a rope tied around their waists, linking themselves in case of a fall or ground collapse. But right now it was just chafing Mabel’s hips. “Bro, can we slow down a bit? I can’t go much faster on this terrain.”

Mason didn’t turn to look back. “We can rest once we’re the other side of this pass. We don’t wanna let up now.”

Mabel tugged on the line. Mason didn’t feel a thing, but Pacifica felt the rope tighten uncomfortably around her guts. “Oof! watch it! Do we really have to go at this pace, Mason? My feet are killing me.”

“And I hate snow!” Mabel added, kicking fruitlessly and the endless expanse of white covering the plateau. "I can't stand all this cold, I'm a Cali girl at heart!"

Mason rubbed his temples. “Girls, please focus. Remember why we took this route in the first place. We have to take a quiet pass so that the Black Hole doesn’t track us down. He’s bound to be on our heels after our run-in with Crane.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to be such as ass about it Dipper!” Mabel once again yanked on the rope petulantly. 

This time Pacifica did the same, halting Mason’s forward march. “Hold up, I need a rest too. We can’t keep charging off without clear direction.”

“Hasn’t steered us wrong so far. We keep on the move, we stay safe, we get this whole thing done with a minimum of fuss.”

Pacifica looked back to Mabel, who had a sympathetic grin. They were both tired of this recent ‘slave-march’ through the Himalayas. It was a seldom used, off-road path. They needed walking poles just to stay anchored upright in the ankle-deep snow. One added bonus of their detour through the mountains was that they got to avoid passing through China, a place Mabel wasn’t exactly welcome in given her political agitation. On their social credit system she had the largest negative score possible.

“Maybe you should just stop and enjoy the scenery a bit?” Mabel waved one of her poles around in a wide circle. “I mean, look at where we are, this place is beautiful.” Pacifica appreciatively nodded, admiring the colossal mountains that surrounded them. She’d seen similar in the Alps, but those couldn’t compare to the scale of this current environment.

Mason finally turned around, locking his eyes on Mabel from under his ushanka. He glanced at the t-shirt she was wearing beneath her jacket. It had the words ‘Free Tibet!’ printed on it in bright letters. That classic Mabel activism on display. Right now it just made him feel annoyed. They didn’t have time for random political side jaunts. Russia had been risky enough.

“We can rest… in India! Now come on.” He forcefully pulled the rope in his direction, turning back towards his goal. Just a few more hours, then they could stop. He had to finish this. He was tired of the quest, tired of Mabel’s endless optimism and misguided energy. A quiet mug of hot chocolate by the fire curled up beside Pacifica was all he craved right now.

Pacifica herself wasn’t having any of that. She stood still, in support for Mabel. “Stop acting so weird, Mace. We have to do this as a team.”

“Oh, do we? After Mabel blew us off in Russia to… blow Eli off?!”

“That’s not fair, I still saved you! Why are you being Mr Grumpy-Pants today?” Mabel folded her arms and pouted as hard as she could. It looked goofy and innocent. Which just drove Mason even more up the wall.

“Can’t you be serious for 5 minutes Mabel? We have an important job, life and death are on the line!” He looked at Pacifica and pointed down the valley. “I’m going that way. I thought you were the one who wanted us to go on this little waste of time across the world, so are you coming or not?”

“Oh, if you think you can boss me around you’ve got another thing coming, Pines!” Pacifica raised her chin and looked down at her husband. “Mabel’s a part of our team. She’s your sister, be mature about this!”

“I will when she starts being mature about anything! She never even wanted to come!”

“You didn’t exactly win me over with your words, bro!” Mabel closed the distance, loosening the slack on Pacifica. Mason did the same. 

Pacifica stood impassively between them. It was all she could do not to throttle both twins there and then, so they’d see some sense.

Mabel jabbed a finger in Mason’s chest. “I was alone for ages, and that was fine. Then one day you think you can drop in and use me as nothing more than a hired gun to get you portal parts?! Is that it?”

“Why can’t you see the bigger picture, this isn’t about you and me!”

“It never is!” She tugged at her hair in frustration.” You’ve don’t understand, there’s no point to anything we do if we can’t stay as brother and sister afterwards!”

“We haven’t got time for this.” Mason made to walk away, deliberately turning to ignore her. “You can go back to wasting your life as soon as you’ve helped us stop Paz’s nightmares.”

Mabel rolled her eyes. “That’s rich! Talk about wasting my life, what have you accomplished in five years?”

Pacifica waved a hand in the twin’s faces. “Uh, guys, you should stop, right now-“

“Nothing, Dip! What did you and Pacifica really do in all that time?”

Mason replied in a hissed whisper. “You don’t know _anything_ about what we’ve been through. You couldn’t begin to imagine!”

“Then freaking tell me! If it’s so momentous, why hold back?!”

“Because I don’t trust you not to make fun of me! You’re nothing more than a naïve IDIOT!“, he exploded out. The words echoed back and forth around the valley. Mabel looked horrified, then set her face into a deep frown.

“Takes one… TO KNOW ONE!” She jumped at her brother, raring to get into a scrap with him. Mason held her arms back, struggling with the force of Mabel’s anger. He was bolstered by his own reserves of enmity, stored up until this moment of catharsis.

“WHY DON’T YOU JUST TAKE THINGS SERIOUSLY FOR ONE TIME IN YOUR LIFE!”

“WHY DON’T _YOU_ ACTUALLY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT ANYONE OTHER THAN YOURSELF!”

“GUYS, GET DOWN!” Pacifica charged into both twins, knocking them into the snow. Mason looked up just in time to see half of one of the mountainsides seem to detach and float serenely down into the valley. Only as the falling snow got closer did he realise that their noisy arguing had triggered an avalanche. Holding tight to the girls, he was powerless to do anything as the wall of white fell in terrifying slow motion. Soon the snow buffeted his body, covering everything in his vision.

* * *

Mason jolted awake abruptly. To his surprise, he found himself lying on a bed roll, within a stone room. There were many other mats laid out around him, like some kind of communal sleeping area. He tried to get his bearings. The room he was in was solid stone, it looked sturdy. There were high windows letting light in, so it was bright and open rather than constricting. He was obviously not in a prison or trap here.

There was no sign of the girls though, which set him mildly on edge. What if whoever had pulled him out of the snow had left them behind? He got up, realising that his winter coat was drying on a rack opposite beside Pacifica’s. That was a weight off his chest. So she was probably safe at least.

Beside the bed roll he found his backpack. He was very grateful to find Journal 7 untouched alongside all his other belongings. The only thing he couldn’t find was Wendy’s hat.

Having enough of this room, he was about to leave when a man in orange and mauve robes entered the room. His skin was bronzed and his head was completely shaved of all hair. “Ah, Mr Pines. You’re awake. We were wondering when you’d come around.”

The man was smiling genially. Mason felt safe around this stranger. “Um, hi. I guess you must be the ones who helped us out of the avalanche.”

“Indeed. My monks aided in extracting you and helped restore your normal body temperatures.”

Mason awkwardly bowed, not sure how respond “So we’re in a monastery right now? Pretty remote place to live.”

“It does mean we have awful wi-fi, I suppose,” he said with a wink. “My monks and I like to live somewhat private lives, outside the interference of the governments that divide up these mountains with invisible lines on maps.”

“That sounds like something my sister would say,” he sneered dismissively, but felt guilty. “Sorry, that’s probably insensitive. I am grateful for everything you’ve done for us.”

The abbot smiled wryly, raising an eyebrow and putting his hand on Mason’s shoulder. He began guiding Mason through the airy corridors of the monastery. “You’re a very lucky man Mr Pines, we wouldn’t have found your party if it wasn’t for your sister’s efforts. She displayed excellent survival techniques and was able climb out of the snow and alert us to you and your wife’s presence.”

“That makes up for her causing the avalanche in the first place.”

The abbot turned to face him. “That’s not the way she tells it.”

“Let me guess, she put all the blame on my shoulders.” He rolled his eyes, but the abbot scowled.

“Quite the contrary. While she wasn’t afraid to say that your arguing caused the snow to fall, she also didn’t shirk the blame for her own part in proceedings. You rushed so quickly into blaming your sister that you didn’t even think for a second that she wouldn’t act the same.”

Mason’s frown wavered. It was true, his first thought had been that Mabel would be as angry at him as he was at her. But that wasn’t Mabel. She’d taken responsibility for her actions, and he’d just thought she’d be self-centred.

The abbot brought Mason to a small church-like anteroom. There was a wooden shrine to the Buddha at one end of the room. “Tell me Mr Pines: Do you believe?” The abbot began lighting small candles, deliberately half-turning so Mason couldn’t be satisfied by looking into his eyes.

Mason pondered that question for a moment, then humbly tried to answer as honestly as he could. “If you mean do I believe in any manmade religion? I think I’ve seen too much in this wide world to ever believe that mankind could properly comprehend it all. The cosmos is far too grand to be so easily contained. All those stories are just moral guidelines from whatever culture they originate in.”

The abbot didn’t respond. Mason had expected that, and silently watched him light the remaining candles. This discussion made him think of his travelling companions. He knew that Pacifica largely shared his views on the matter. Her parents had never had much fealty to anything other than ‘the whims of the stock market’, so she hadn’t been raised with any kind of religion.

Mabel on the other hand practiced a form of ‘soft syncretism’. She would take beliefs and traditions from cultures throughout history and stick them all together in a blender. Which is how she ended up owning a snake named after an Egyptian god, while also possessing a Buddhist prayer mat and celebrating Christmas, Hanukah, and a host of Pagan holidays.

“My family don’t take belief too seriously. We’ve all experienced more than enough to ever put much faith in anything like that.”

“Hmm.” That quiet utterance was all he was getting from the abbot. Mason went over to a nearby window. Even though they’d been trekking through the mountains for days now, the view of the snow-capped peaks still took his breath away. Outside the monastery walls there was no sign of human life anywhere.

“We’ll have to be moving on soon. There are people tracking our movements, even in as remote a place as this.”

The abbot finally finished his ritual with the shrine. “It’s a good thing you made the crossing when you did. In about a week’s time we’re due the first of the really bad winter storms. Though with all the climate change these past years it’s hard to be certain.”

Mason nodded. “I made sure we tried to get over as fast as we could. No delays, no setbacks, no distractions.”

“And there’s your problem Mason. Always rushing forwards.” The abbot gazed deeply into Mason’s eyes. He felt strangely unable to break the look, to turn away from his stare.

“You so desperately want to reach your destination that you’re neglecting the journey. Curious too, it’s not like you’re trying to reach some distant future. You want the past, or rather the very recent past. You and your wife, together in peace, no sister in the picture.”

“How do you-“ Mason protested but was cut off.

“I sense a more distant, better past, that you’re avoiding thinking about. What you truly need is to reconcile your past and present, to move forward into a more complete future.”

“Yeah, right, and Mabel’s not a world renowned criminal.” He paced over to the corner of the room and stared at nothing in deep concentration. “You don’t know me. I’ve always just wanted a quiet life.”

“Is that so? The very fact that you’ve come all this way suggests otherwise to me.”

“If you’re done psychoanalysing me, I have somewhere to be.” He walked past the abbot, ignoring the glare.

“There is a peak not far from this monastery,” the abbot called out. Mason halted, deciding to humour what he had to say. “If you wish to leave this place, I will not stop you. But I implore you to climb that mountain first. Go alone to the heart of ice, and you will find your past and future. I promise you.”

Mason looked back, unsure of the abbot’s motives. All he could read on the man’s face was a subtle grin. “I’m so gonna regret this.”

Burdened with all his hiking gear, Mason exited into the modest courtyard of the monastery. He finally found where the girls had got too.

Several young novice monks were playing a game of soccer, with Mabel showing them how to play. She seemed to be conversing with them in fluent Tibetan, which would have impressed him if he had time to focus on such things.

He looked up, scanning the nearby mountain ranges. Eventually he spied the peak the abbot had told him about. What looked like a layer of light fog hugged the peak. He knew that up close the wind would be howling and the conditions bitter.

He looked back down to the courtyard, smiling at the sight he noticed tucked away on a small bench. Pacifica had her journal open and was sketching the mountains opposite. It was nice to see her drawing something other than the same portal symbol for once. He also finally figured out the culprit behind his stolen ushanka, which she was wearing in an attempt to keep her ears warm.

He came and sat on the bench beside her. “Mason! You’re finally awake!” She put down her pencil and side-hugged her husband. It didn’t take her long to notice that he was already prepared for more journeying. Her smile dropped. “Oh, I was hoping we could rest a bit longer here. I still feel like a polar bear from lying under all that snow.”

“It’s alright Pacifica. I’m going on the next mission alone.” She frowned, confused, and Mason tried to explain. “The abbot of this place seems to think there’s something in one of these mountains. Something that might help me… help me…” He trailed off, his eyes drifting over to Mabel’s raucous game. Even when hunted across continents, she was still finding time to hang loose and have fun. 

He looked back at Pacifica and smiled, hoping to ease her worry. “It’s alright. I’ll only be gone a few hours. The monks will look after you both, they’re good people. This is just something I have to do for myself.”

Pacifica squeezed his mitten-clad hand. “Don’t do anything too crazy while you’re up there. I remember the stunts you got up to without me back in Gravity Falls. If it so pleases you, I’d rather not have to bandage you up when you get back.”

Mason laughed, then stole Wendy’s hat from Pacifica’s head, eliciting a small yelp. “I’m gonna need this back. Sorry, where I’m going is a lot colder than down here.” He quickly pecked her on the lips. “I’ll try to be quick. Love you Paz.”

* * *

Mason emerged from the small blizzard. His hike up the mountainside had been a trial in and of itself. He glanced back the way he’d came, then regretted it. Swallowing, he forced himself to look again. He was beside a sheer jagged cliff. 

Far below was the monastery. Now he had an aerial vantage, he could see just how precariously it was balanced on the edge of the mountainside. He ran a hand over his head, awed by the sight. Brushing Wendy’s hat, he mused to himself that the redhead probably would have been perfectly at home in a place like this, on the fringes of danger. Not for the first time since leaving Russia he considered Quattro’s advice. Maybe having another person on their team would help cool tensions with Mabel?

He turned back to his destination and promised himself to think on it later. Straight ahead, just visible behind the whirling snowfall, was a tall stupa with colourful flags marking the cave entrance.

He pulled a flashlight out of his backpack and examined the cave. The walls and floor were smooth and deep blue, coated in a layer of ice. He sighed, wishing now that he hadn’t given in to the abbot’s prompting. Seeing no other way, he started slowly walking into the frozen tunnel.

It was tough keeping his feet stable on the slippery ground. For a moment it reminded him of a Mystery Hunt he’d gone on with Mabel, over a decade ago. Then he pushed that thought away. It would only distract him from whatever he was looking for.

That was a good question after all. What _was_ he looking for?

Much like their ‘plan’ to roam around the world looking for answers, he felt decidedly lost right now. The tunnel opened up into a vast chamber supported by a pillar of stone. He heard a satisfying crunch and saw that the ground here had less tightly compacted snow layered on it. He’d be able to make it deeper in without accidentally doing the splits on the slippery ice.

The cavern was open to several large crevasses, so he was careful to skirt round the edges to avoid falling. He passed into another icy side passage and sighed. How much longer was this going to take? Bored by the sameness of the tunnel, he grabbed Journal 7 out of his backpack and tried to read to take his mind off the cold.

He glanced over a passage about a spell he’d copied from Bokamoso Potgieter. The shaman had leant the trio a small book of magic spells to practice. It was a rather arcane form of magic. Mason doubted that he himself had much capability for that sort of thing, Mabel had always been the more adept sibling with those matters. Her latent telepathic powers had certainly caused a lot of problems for them back in the day, he recalled sourly.

His bitter recollection was interrupted when the journal was swept out of his hands by a blast of wind. It slid down the tunnel and Mason tried to scoot after it on his ungainly legs. Just as he bent down to grab it, the wind returned to blow it further away. He once again narrowed the gap, and the same process repeated itself.

“Right, wind with a sense of humour. Not trying that again.”

“Imperfect…” a voice in the air responded. Mason spun around trying to catch where it had come from. “Imperfect collection of observations…”

“Not a beacon of knowledge…” Another voice. Where the first had been soft, female, this new one was a harsh whispered male. “The same flawed hand made it…”

He realised they were talking about Journal 7, the book that Mabel had made for him. He smiled cruelly at the idea that this cave was mocking Mabel’s handiwork. 

“Not hers, but yours… don’t judge by the cover”

“A book is only as good as its contents…”

Shame washed over Mason. Mabel had poured her heart and soul into making this journal and he’d tried to belittle her. He stepped lightly towards the book and picked it up. Whatever force had been keeping him from it must have subsided. He looked at the blueish-black cover with its network of golden linked constellations and stars. Even though he’d left her behind, Mabel had still cared enough to make a book reflecting both his birthmark and his career as an astronomer.

He sighed and put the book back in his pack. He wanted to stay mad at his sister but felt the energy for that start to drain. He’d already wasted enough time today on pointless things. About to start off down the tunnel again, his eye was drawn to the frozen wall.

Behind the cool blue sheen on the surface, colours began dancing within the ice. He got close and peered inside. There were swathes of orange and brown, mixed with some green. It was a forest scene, suspended like crystals in an icy tableau. Then it shifted, showing a spiral staircase leading down into the earth.

He recognised this location. It was the Author’s bunker back in Gravity Falls, the one he’d visited in his first summer there.

Playing out before him were images from his past. He was seeing events through his own eyes. Laid out before him was a prone body. Through the ice he struggled to make out whose body it was, before the memory struck him

“_This is all my fault! If I had told you when we were in the closet we wouldn't be in this mess. But I was too scared and now you could be hurt or worse…_” He squinted at the scene. Far be it to question the _how_ of this cave, _why_ was he being shown events from this particular day?

He watched other events from that day, reflections as seen through a funhouse mirror, bending and shifting through the glassy medium. Wendy fearlessly climbing the tree to open the bunker. The two of them running down the cave away from the shapeshifter. At the time, that day had felt so momentous. Clues to the authors identity dangled in front of him and snatched away. His tentative crush on Wendy ended decisively.

Looking back after 15 years, knowing the Author’s identity and with a stable, happy marriage, the after-effects of that day no longer stung. So what was the cave trying to tell him? The image morphed so he was looking up at Wendy, sat next to him on a log.

“_This summer was super boring until you showed up. I have more fun with you than practically anybody else. And if you ever stopped being my friend, I would, like, throw myself into the Bottomless Pit!_”

Then the image froze. Mason studied it in deep contemplation. Wendy had said that right after he’d admitted his feelings towards her. A big momentous confession that he’d been sure would ruin everything.

But it hadn’t. They’d stayed close, and he’d been able to grow and move on. He thought more about how it could relate to the present, then was suddenly struck by a realisation. Who had he been arguing with non-stop ever since she’d come back into his life? Who only wanted above all else to go back to being friends?

“_Friends?_” the past Mason said, hoping he’d mended whatever connection he had with Wendy.

“_Yeah dude! Friends!_” She playfully shoved him off the log into a pile of leaves, and the colours melted away until the present Mason was just staring at muffled blue ice once more.

This vision was all about Mabel, he now realised. Despite how worked up Mason had got over her actions, she wanted that not to get in the way of their sibling relationship. He’d been entirely wrapped up in his own reactions, scared how things would affect his life with Pacifica, but not sparing a thought for his sister’s emotions. He rubbed the back of his neck, warm guilt filling his body. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to fully forgive Mabel yet. Or whether she was the one who even needed to be forgiven.

The vision also had the side effect of reminding him how he’d neglected keeping in contact with Wendy. He’d lost more than just his sister when he’d severed ties with the East Coast. He would have to put some serious thought into contacting his old friend as soon as they were out of these mountains.

The ice fluctuated again, drawing his eye back to the projection. Now it showed another moment from that day, this time it was when Wendy fought the shapeshifter. The creature had taken her form, so it was as if she was fighting herself. Mason knew this was once again trying to impart some knowledge to him, he just had to figure out what.

He jumped back in fright as the ice where he’d been watching the vision suddenly splintered in two. A great crack ran down the wall of the cave. It was spreading fast, tearing the two Wendys apart. The tension gave way and shards of ice rained down on Mason, who raised his arms to protect himself from any sharp pieces.

When he lowered his arms, he almost jumped out of his winter coat in fright at what he saw. Framed in the shattered ice was the person he least wanted to see. Still clad in the dark plastic armour and carrying a rifle, the Black Hole began walking methodically towards him. 

Wasting no time, Mason broke into a sprint and hurried down the tunnel. He did the best he could to stay upright on the ice, but all pretences of staying dignified went out the window when a rifle shot narrowly missed him by a few inches.

“Come back,” he heard the Black Hole say impassively. It was a command he had no intention of following. Despite all his efforts to shake their pursuer, he’d somehow cornered him in this frozen tomb.

He reached the tunnel’s exit… and found himself back in the central cavern with the tall pillar. That was impossible, the tunnel he’d taken had gone in a straight line. “Now’s not the time to be getting lost,” he muttered under his breath, which was visible in the chilly depths.

He looked for a new tunnel to try exploring before the Black Hole caught up to him again. Taking his chances, he chose one that seemed to have less ice and more rock so he could have a stronger footing. He sorely missed Pacifica and, much as he hated to admit it, Mabel. Right now they’d be much better in a direct fight, or simply more quick-witted at finding escape routes. He liked to work more methodically; being under pressure just led him to make more errors of judgement. He couldn’t do this alone.

“Mason? Where are you?” Against all odds, he heard a voice calling out from deeper down the passage he’d taken. He couldn’t believe his luck. “Mason? I’m here, come this way.” It was Pacifica’s voice. He hurried forwards and came upon her. She was leaning against the cave wall, looking fatigued. She was happy to see him, smiling widely.

He just had questions. “Paz, why did you come here?! I was supposed to be doing this on my own.”

“But aren’t you grateful I’m here?” she said, smirking. “The Black Hole’s coming to find us.”

“You know about him? Well, you’re right, we do have to go, now. Come on.” He bundled her forwards, eager to not lose the small lead he had on their invisible pursuer. 

Pacifica was resisting his push. “Wait, we have to talk first.”

“What?!” He shook his head and brushed past. “There’s no time, we’ll talk back at the monastery. I’m gonna need their prayers if we have any hope of staying ahead of the Black Hole.” He grabbed Pacifica’s hand, but it felt incredibly cold to the touch, which was particularly noteworthy given they were already standing in a cave that was approaching temperatures below zero.

“You have to keep me safe, Mason, you’ve gotta protect me.” She put her hand over her heart. “You’ve gotta promise, you’ll always do it for me.”

“O-of course Paz. But why-“

“Out of harm’s way, can’t let anyone hurt what we have. Not even her.”

“Her?” Mason racked his brains, then fell on the obvious answer. “Mabel. This is- something’s wrong here.”

Pacifica smiled outwardly, but it was a sad look that expressed a deep longing for something out of her grasp. Mason had become distressingly familiar with that look in the last few years. He cupped her frosty cheek, adding a rueful smile of his own. “You’re not the real Pacifica, are you. You’re like the ice earlier, just a murky reflection of me.”

She didn’t respond, just smiled in that same innocent way. 

“That’s what I thought I was doing, moving us away from Mabel. Keeping you safe from her actions. Now look where it’s got us.” Mason looked at the floor, all his past attempts to run away and insulate Pacifica coming back to haunt him.

He felt ‘Pacifica’ tilt his head back upwards. “This is a good thing Mason. You’re finally seeing things from a different point of view.”

He smiled weakly. He finally wanted to speak to Mabel, to try and hash something out at long last. He let go of the imitation of his wife, then turned to make his way out of the cave.

He nearly tripped when he heard a bang from behind. Whirling round, he gaped at the copy of Pacifica. She was clutching her stomach with a look of complete shock in her eyes. Blood began pouring out from behind her hands. Mason rushed to her side as she fell onto to her knees. He tried to reach out and hold her but was forced to recoil. She was so cold it hurt to touch.

Before his eyes, the colours on Pacifica began fading to a cool blue. She’d turned to ice. Then she burst into a million fragments raining out on the tunnel floor. Mason tried to hold back tears at the sight, even though he knew it wasn’t the real Pacifica. He stared past where she’d been standing just a moment before.

Straight down the barrel of the Black Hole’s rifle. He fell back onto his rear and shuffled away, all the while the Black Hole kept him aimed in his sights. “Please, don’t shoot!”

“Now why would I waste ammo like that?” It was the same modulated deep voice he’d heard in Venice. Combined with the blank face mask, his attacker could be practically anyone. The Black Hole sheathed his rifle and strode towards Mason menacingly.

“I don’t even know what you want!” That was partly true. He knew that the Black Hole was after portal components, but whether he was after more than that remained to be seen.

“What I want is for you to face me, once and for all.” The assassin crouched down on his haunches in front of Mason, who tried to cower away. “Relax, I’ll make this easy for you.”

“Stay back!” Mason raised his fists to try and put up a meagre defence. Even though he’d managed to bulk out somewhat since his teens (good riddance to his noodle arms), he still wasn’t prepared to fight off a trained attacker. 

If the Black Hole could smugly grin, that’s what Mason guessed he was doing at that moment, regarding him curiously like a cute animal trying to perform a trick. “Calm down, I won’t hurt you.”

“B-but you shot Pacifica-“

“She wasn’t real, dummy. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one of us?”

Mason’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand.”

“You never do.” The Black Hole reached for the expressionless helmet and removed it with a hiss of air. Tucking the helmet beneath an arm, Mason’s ‘attacker’ smiled down at him and pushed some loose strands of her brown hair out of her face. “Surprise! It’s me!”

He felt a great weight lift off his body, relieved that this wasn’t the real Black Hole, though still wary of whatever would happen next. “I should’ve guessed it would be you. Hey sis.”

The conjured image of Mabel grinned harder. “Not so surprising, is it. The dark spectre hounding you, always on your trail so you can never relax. The perfect reflection of how you feel about me.”

“I really am bitter, aren’t I,” he spat. “So this is what the abbot wanted me to see. I can’t believe it Mabel, I spent years thinking of you like a demon, haunting my life. I couldn’t see how much it was affecting me. It made into such an unfeeling… ugh.” He felt disgusted with his past actions, wanting nothing more than to start fixing things with Mabel. “She did what she believed in with all her heart, tried to make the world a better place. And I made her into a boogeyman in my mind for that.”

“Guess it’s my fault too. I didn’t think about how my dodgy activities could hurt you and Paz.”

Mason shook his head. “No, I was being overly paranoid. Sure, you’ve been reckless and foolish at times… but I still love you Mabel. Thank god the real you won’t remember me saying that, phew. Awkward, uh, ice sibling hug?”

“I have something better.” Mabel closed her eyes and arched her head back. Mason watched as the same process which had engulfed Pacifica in ice started coating Mabel and the Black Hole armour as well. This time she stayed solid and didn’t break apart.

When Mabel’s eyes opened they were blank surfaces, with no pupils to speak of. Just mirrors. She began leading Mason forwards down the tunnel. When they reached its terminus, Mason wasn’t surprised to find they were back in the central cavern again.

One difference jumped out from his last visits to this place. There was a man sitting cross-legged right in the middle of the cavern. Mason approached warily, leaving the Mabel/Black Hole to watch. The old man was wizened beyond belief. It was as if every inch of his skin was folded over in thousands of wrinkles. Heavily lids opened to reveal dark eyes looking up.

Mason must have crossed some kind of invisible line around the man, since at that moment he heard a deep growl. It was answered by several more. Appearing from the many diverging tunnels, or climbing down on the great rock pillar, large hairy creatures began entering the room.

The bipedal animals, each one around 8 feet tall, came to crouch around the man in reverence. Their fur was matted and black, whilst their heads bore curved goat-like horns. Mason wondered if perhaps these odd beings were distant inspirations to the myths of the Yeti. They walked largely on their hind legs, occasionally using their thick arms to knuckle-walk like gorillas.

Mason watched them huddle together for a moment. The way they seemed to interact with one another and how they deferentially stayed away from the ancient man made them seem practically hominid esque. Though, with the dark fur and horns, they looked more like Yaks standing on two legs than anything else.

He tried to think of a good scientific classification for the beasts. Homo Frigidus? Shaking his head, for once he decided to embrace a simpler approach for naming these harmless creatures. Stand-Yak would do.

He walked towards the centre of the huddle, tiptoeing around the placid beasts and making for the elderly man. “Um, hello. I doubt you get many visitors all the way up here.”

“Hmm, no. You’re right with that, young man. I am the abbot.”

“Of the monastery? Wait, you mean-“

“Precisely. I am the _first_ abbot, the founder of my monastic order. Across the long night and day of the earth I have waited, isolated here to maintain the cave and give guidance.”

“You’re another a-mortal.”

“If that is what you wish to call me.”

Mason pondered this fact. This was the fourth a-mortal they’d encountered in the last few weeks. Surely that meant something, they were cropping up remarkably often. He could think on it more later.

“So you caused all the weird illusions I’ve been seeing?”

“I have influence over the minds of men. The ice provides a medium for channelling one’s thoughts into reality.”

“I’ve theorised about this, given that you have so much spare time it’s only natural that most a-mortals would develop other powers on top. Or it’s possible that those with innate abilities are also more likely to have the power to live longer… or,” he added, remembering that he was rambling about Journal nonsense again. “Or maybe it’s just one of those cool things I should accept I’m never gonna get an answer to.”

“That’s probably for the best,” the old man said with a smile. “It’s been so long since I last saw another traveller. I think… I’d like to rest now. Place your hand on my forehead, child.”

Mason swallowed and did as he was told. As his fingers lightly brushed the skin on the man’s head, his body began falling into dust and floating away. He’d looked so old before and now he was literally falling apart. In seconds all the dust that had once been the a-mortal had blown away into the various tunnels around the cavern. The Stand-Yaks regarded the empty spot curiously, then began leaving one at a time.

Mason wondered if the old man had truly died, or if he’d simply moved on to some higher plane. Or for that matter, whether the whole thing had just been one more illusion. He turned back to Mabel’s icy echo.

Water was dripping off her now. She was going too. “Bye Dipper. Try to be less stupid from now on.”

He laughed. “I promise. I think I understand now. I don’t have to blindly rush forwards to the end. Perhaps if I savour what I’ve already got…”

“You’ve got it bro. Watch out for the Black Hole. They’re like ice, cold on the outside, but hiding inner depths if you only look closely.” Mason stayed with Mabel until she was nothing more than a puddle of water dissipating on the floor of the cavern. Then he turned and began the long trek back down the mountain.

* * *

Returning to the monastery late in the day, Pacifica and Mabel had already packed and were waiting for him so they could continue the journey. When Pacifica saw him she could tell instantly that something was different now. 

Mabel looked away, still hurt from their argument on the plateau. She was surprised when she felt her brother’s grip tighten around her in a warm embrace. “Dipper? Uh, what are you doing? Pacifica’s over there.”

He couldn’t stifle a laugh. “It’s good to see you Mabel. I just wanna say I’m sorry. So so sorry for how dumb I’ve been.”

“Really?” There was an audible hint of hope in her words, tinged with a small amount of doubt that this was some ploy to make fun of her. He removed all her doubts.

“Really, Mabel. Can we start fresh, no bad blood? It’s too late for an awkward sibling hug, but-“

“Yes Dipper, of course!” She picked Mason up into a hug and span him around jubilantly. “I don’t know what you’ve been smoking up that mountain, but I’m so happy you wanna finally talk about stuff.”

“Yeah, I’m ready to face it properly.”

Pacifica raised an eyebrow quizzically. “What _did_ happen up there exactly?”

Mason cradled his chin for a moment before answering. “I went on a journey.”

The girls shared a quizzical look, then Pacifica started heading towards the trail. “We should go, we don’t want the Black Hole to catch up with us.”

Mason gripped her arm lightly and smiled. “Let’s not go quite so fast. We might as well take our time and appreciate every moment. Together.”


	15. The Burrowers

The Neo Visakhapatnam beachfront was empty. Empty, apart from the occasional alien creatures moving about, leaving trails of sand behind as they dug channels below ground. The normally bustling beach was deserted, but not because of the unusual creatures beneath it. The same reason for the absence of people made accessing the beach much easier for Mason, Mabel, and Pacifica, who left their hotel room early and set foot on the sand.

India had gone through a massive tech boom in the last decade, outclassing even Japan for its excessive displays of modern advancements. The downtown the trio passed through resembled the flashy streets of Tokyo more than anything else. It was a paradise for digital entrepreneurs, and the dazzling array of futuristic holographic screens lining every building and bathing the city in neon pinks was a unique sight.

It was also clear, from the various adverts and storefronts the trio passed, why the city seemed largely unoccupied. From plastic reindeers to gaudy fake pine trees, the western influence on the city was obvious. It was Christmas day. Perfect for getting a quiet moment to check out the beach.

Right as Mason and Pacifica stepped down onto the sand, they heard Mabel’s piercing cry of glee. “It’s official, woo!” She blasted a party streamer she’d somehow acquired, then hugged her two favourite people. “Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Feliz Navidad! Blessed Saturnalia!”

“Alright, that’s enough Mabel, jeez.” Mason shoved his sister playfully to get her to stop rattling off holidays. “We get it, Winter Solstice, holiday time, woo. But just look at that phenomena!” He gestured at the beach, covered in odd humps and lines caused by whatever was teeming underneath.

“Pfft, boring! Dip, it’s only the most wonderful day of the year and you wanna spend it working.”

“Well, when you love your work…” He winked at her, then rolled his eyes. “But, since I know you’re gonna make us celebrate anyway, let’s get it over with.”

“Yay! Hey Paz, it must be weird celebrating Christmas on a beach, in the warm! Welcome to upside-down town!” Pacifica was watching the shifting sands and wasn’t quite focused. “Ugh, I forgot. You married a fellow nerd, Dipper.”

“Hmm, what?” Pacifica lazily looked at Mabel. “Right, Christmas. What’s the big deal again?”

“WHAT?!” Mabel’s eyes nearly boggled out of her sockets. “How can you not like today?!”

Mason answered with a wry smile. “Remember sis, Pacifica’s rich. She got the equivalent of Christmas practically every day growing up.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t quite have the same impact on me.” She smiled weakly. “But definitely, we can spend some time with each other. Once our business is out of the way. Sure the beach is empty now, but the locals will probably start showing up once they’ve all finished their ‘morning festive rituals’”.

She looked again at the curious action taking place on the beach. It was as if someone were poking their fingers on the sand from below and leaving marks as they went. Mason pointed over to the far end of the beach, where a squat brick building sat behind a chain link fence. There was a radio tower beside it.

“That there is the relay station. There’s a small portal component inside I need to quickly retrieve. Then there’s whatever’s churning up the beach. According to reports they haven’t harmed anyone, just been a nuisance.”

Mabel sighed and acquiesced to the others, who were much more ‘work focused’ than she would have liked on a day such as today. But her mood was a difficult thing to dampen, especially after Mason had lightened up after leaving Tibet. He was actually laughing and having fun around her again, it felt so relieving.

“Alright, you two journal dorks sort out the beach, I’ll go do what I do best and do some breaking and entering at the relay station. Meet me there in half an hour?” The couple nodded and both pulled out their journals at the exact same time, eliciting a chuckle from Mabel. “I really was a good matchmaker with you too. Here, have one present before the main event.”

She handed Pacifica an old-fashioned cd. “_Latin-Jazz dance mixes volume 4_?”

“I picked it up after you told me about you and Dipper’s ‘secret exercises’.” She conspiratorially winked and skipped away, leaving Pacifica blushing and Mason with a raised eyebrow. 

“’Secret exercises’? Princess, did you tell my sister about our evening classes?” He folded his arms and tutted. “Dear dear, and I thought I had your complete trust.”

Pacifica couldn’t hold back a laugh and slid the cd into her pack. “Alright mister, very funny. Quite a turn you’ve had since you went in that cave. You’re actually having fun.”

“I know, it feels great! Ready for some Christmas Mystery Hunting?”

“Hmm, I’d rather have sex on the beach, but as alternatives go…” She smirked as her husband choked on hearing her words. “It is Christmas after all. We haven’t had time to get each other any other gifts, so…” she trailed off suggestively, then Mason allowed himself to be pulled over to the shore, a dumb grin on his face. “Alright, quick monster to deal with, home in time for breakfast.” She opened her journal and held it one hand while observing the sand. “What do we have here, some kind of sand-dwelling digging creature probably, might be worth checking local mythologies for any matches.”

“You know you’re really hot when you act like a professional at this,” Mason said adoringly.

“Obviously dear, that’s why I’m doing it.” She quickly kissed him on the cheek, deepening his blush, then poked a foot at the ends of one of the sand trails. It halted and started shifting in a different direction. “Got anything to bring one up to the surface?”

“Oh, oh sure.” Flustered, he opened his own journal. “Bokamoso has a good spell for this.”

“Are you telling me you’ve actually managed to cast one of those yet? Potgieter might have given you a list of them, but you still haven’t done more than summon a single bolt of lightning. And I’m not convinced that wasn’t just a coincidence, it was quite a rainy day after all.”

“Ha ha,” he said dryly. “We’ll see who’s laughing once I show off my newfound power.” He rolled up his sleeves and cracked his knuckles, which didn’t make Pacifica any less assured that his magic would fail. “Simple spell, it’s supposed to act like a magnet, probably generates extra pheromones to draw in-“

“Oh just do it already. You can talk science to me when we’re back in bed, stuffed up with Christmas chocolate. I guess that Mabel has a five-course meal already planned out.”

Mason started moving his hands around in strange patterns. He wished that the spell wasn’t non-verbal, since he felt kinda dumb just waving his hands back and forth. Eventually the sand started to fall away as something rose up. A soft blue shell poked out of the ground. Beneath it were two grey eyes on stalks, that regarded the two of them with indifference. All in all, the creature was no bigger than a cat.

Mason stopped casting the spell, then the small cryptid began shuffling around making trails in the sand. It slowly began to sink before Mason picked it up and turned it over to examine the base. “As I thought, some kind of ‘vibrational digger’” He pointed to several twisting appendages arranged in a circle. “These produce a force as they wiggle, it lets them dig and propels them forwards. Pretty industrious little guys.”

“They seem harmless.” Pacifica took hold of the crab-like shell of the burrower and dropped it onto the sand. With nothing holding it onto the surface the creature quickly used its vibrations to move sand out of the way and lower itself back underground. “Are these cuties gonna cause problems when the beach opens later?”

“I don’t think so, all the reports of the trails being sighted were from isolated witnesses after dark or around dawn. The extra vibrations of all the tourists probably acts to reinforce their own natural digging instincts, so they burrow deeper. Evolution producing a natural survival mechanism, amazing!”

“Just as amazing as you.” Pacifica hugged her arms around his waist and nuzzled her cheeks against his.

He rubbed against her face appreciatively. The tense and stressful nature of their travels since Venice had left little time to enjoy each other’s company. Finally they had a moment with nothing to distract them. He felt totally at peace in her arms. Then he felt Pacifica’s hands move lower than his waist, earning a yelp of surprise from him. “Woah, Paz, easy now! How come you’re feeling so frisky today?”

She shrugged, continuing to stroke her hands across his jeans. “Well, for one it’s a holiday, I’m allowed to relax. And second, I don’t have to put up with you acting like a complete bonehead around your sister anymore. I think that’s the best gift you could have given.”

He rubbed his neck guiltily. “Yeeeeeeah, I was a little high-strung about all that.”

“Tell me about it, I couldn’t get five minute’s peace. Now it’s starting to get better. That makes me happy.”

“Well, if that’s what it takes, then I’ll try even harder around Mabel, just for you Princess.” He tilted her head up and kissed her, softly and tenderly in a way he hadn’t in weeks. Pacifica moved her hands upwards to run them through his soft brown curls. She started kissing him faster and more hungrily, a move he couldn’t fail to notice.

He broke off and put a finger on her lips. “Ah ah Paz, work first, play later.”

“But all work and no play makes Paz a dull girl.” She ran a finger seductively down his cheek, pouting at him in a needy way.

“We have all day to spend together. We shouldn’t let Mabel feel out though, it’s Christmas for her too. We’ll go grab the portal component, enjoy some festive cheer. Then you and I can have some fun under the mistletoe all afternoon.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He gave a high pitched squeak when Pacifica slapped him on the rear and span off towards the relay station. Feeling very excited, he wiped some sweat off his brow, then chased after her like a puppy after a bone.

* * *

“Jackpot! Guys, we hit the motherlode!” When they found Mabel in the cramped relay station control room, she was rattling a plastic box full of components. Mason excitedly sifted through them, checking over racks of circuit boards, microchips, and connectors that would make constructing the portal that much easier. Mabel could tell he was happy. “I think this is our best Christmas present yet, Dip.”

“It is pretty awesome. Today’s been very productive. We checked that the creatures were harmless, and we snagged a boatload of portal parts. I think that calls for a celebration!”

“Woo, let’s go get hammered!” Pacifica grabbed the component box and shook it a few times.

Mabel pulled the couple into a bear hug, with her arms around both their necks. “I know so many great party games we can try out. It’ll be like one of our old sleepovers at the Shack! Off the chain, woop!” They started heading out, their dual mission for the day complete.

“Hey Mabel,” Mason said as they hopped down onto the sand. “Since me and Paz haven’t had a chance to get you anything yet, how about we swing by the tech district, we can find you something nice.”

“That is so sweet bro! You can get me a present… right after you escape my headlock! Blah!” She pulled his head down into the crook of his arm. 

He couldn’t help but laugh as he tried weakly to break free from his sister’s playful grip. “You know what guys, I think everything’s starting to look up.”

That was when everything turned to shit.

The first thing Mason became aware of was loud zipping noise like a fast-moving object, followed by a squelch. Milliseconds later there came an ear-piercing scream from Mabel. Then he felt her grip around his head loosen, causing him to flop on the sand. He tried to look up to see what had happened, but something dripped onto his face, blocking his vision. He rubbed the red substance away. It was blood.

Clutching her shoulder, Mabel was on her knees, moaning in pain. Pacifica was standing upright, her mouth covered and eyes staring wildly ahead.

Across the beach, with the end of his rifle still smoking from the shot, the Black Hole appeared out of thin air. “Finally found you.”

With Mabel prone bleeding on the ground and Pacifica seemingly paralysed by shock, Mason had to think quickly. The beach was completely open, and Mabel couldn’t run even she wanted to. They couldn’t charge their adversary; he’d shoot them down before they got close. A trail of sand forming right behind the assassin gave them their only way out.

Mason started waving both his hands wildly in front of him. The Black Hole cocked his head to the side. “Don’t try begging. I’m ending this now. No more portals, no more interference.” There was a low hum - the sound of his futuristic rifle charging up for another blast.

“I’m not begging.” Mason stuck both hands out, palms wide. The beach around the Black Hole erupted in clouds of turned up sand. He panicked as dozens of the blue shelled burrowers emerged and began clustering around. Mason had amplified the summoning spell as much as he could, so now the creatures were throwing themselves at the Black Hole, who struggled to keep them off as they dragged him down.

Seizing the opportunity, he put his arm around Mabel. She whimpered softly, but he didn’t let go. “I have to do this Mabel! I know it hurts, just hold on. Pacifica, help me carry her, we need to head away from here!” Roused from her panic, Pacifica nodded, and the pair helped Mabel to her feet.

They ran with no clear goal in mind towards the brightly coloured glowing lights of the city.

* * *

Still early the day, there was no one about as they passed down a row of retail stores. The Chiu-tech logo was stamped everywhere, the influence of that brand visible all around on screens and adverts. Mason picked a department store at random and kicked the door open. 

Inside there were statues of Shiva and Ganesh abutting Santa and his elves. More evidence of the recent fusion of cultures. Commercialism and tradition side by side.

He figured the easiest place to hide would be in a clothes section, since all the displays might give the illusion of other people and cause some doubt in the Black Hole’s aim. It wasn’t much, but they couldn’t carry on with Mabel’s current condition. 

They laid her down on the third floor up, and Pacifica ran to gather some soft clothes to make a blanket or makeshift bandages. Mabel was breathing heavily, eyes clenching shut every now and again. Paling, Mason bent close to try and see how bad the damage was.

“Bro, you’ve gotta get the bullet out,” Mabel said through pained breaths. She awkwardly removed her brown jacket, which the bullet had missed, but which was stained by her blood.

To examine the wound, Mason moved some of Mabel’s hair out of the way. Since leaving Seattle Mabel hadn’t bothered maintaining its short length, so now her pixie cut had been replaced with messy long strands stretching down her neck. As he moved the hair, some it caught against the wound, sending stabbing pains through Mabel’s body. He had to hold her down as she convulsed. The terror he was feeling nearly made him throw up.

When he saw the location of the bullet hole he realised something. If he’d been standing upright a mere moment later, then the Black Hole’s shot would have hit him right between the eyes. Mabel’s headlock had saved his life. “Mabel… you took a bullet for me.”

Despite the pain she waved a hand dismissively. “Ah, it’s nothing. Not my first bullet anyway. Still hurts like hell though, ah.”

While he tried to deal with the image of Mabel having been shot in the past, his study of the wound led to an odd discovery. “Uh, I don’t know how to tell you this, but there’s no bullet.”

“What? There must be, I was shot! Maybe it’s buried deep in there, have a closer-“

“I am looking Mabel, and I’m telling you there’s no bullet.” He scratched he goatee for a moment. “Of course, it was some kind of energy weapon. You’ve been hit by a plasma blast.”

“Whatever nerd-gun I was shot with, it’s not fatal at least. Have to stem the bleeding though.” At that moment Pacifica returned with a bunch of bedding from a nearby display. After propping Mabel up on a soft duvet, she pressed a pillowcase down on the bullet hole. “Ah, not so hard Paz! Light touch, light touch!”

“Sorry! This is the first time I’ve ever had to deal with this kind of thing!” she replied, flustered.

“Dipper, go and…” she stopped to breathe, then continued, “…go and make sure we’re secure here. I want you to let me know if there are any big display screens packed tightly together in the foyer.” She saw his quizzical look. “Just do it! I need to know if they’re Chiu-tech made. Go!”

Jolted by her command, he ran off downstairs to the lobby. “So much for our perfect Christmas.” Pacifica set down the box of portal components she’d managed to keep a hold of during all the chaos. 

With her good arm, Mabel gripped her shaking hands. “It’s alright Paz, stay calm. You’re not a true adventurer without a few scars,” she smirked to herself. “You wouldn’t know about that, miss perfect appearance.”

Pacifica wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or an insult. “Oh yeah? Take a look at these.” She pulled back one of the sleeves of her purple flannel shirt, revealing an arm with a number of small scars. “This one’s from a tussle with a Chiropteran, I got the one up here from being burnt by a sea spline, and this gnarly one was from one time Mason had to prise off a Cycloptopus baby from suckling on my arm.”

“Woah, sick! We’re scar-sisters!” Mabel momentarily forgot the pain she was in to admire Pacifica’s scars. She pointed to one halfway up her forearm. “And that one?”

“That one’s from… my dad. He had quite a tight grip…”

“Oh.” That simple word felt totally inadequate. The after-effects of Pacifica’s childhood had once again reared their ugly head and Mabel had no clue what to say.

Pacifica pulled her sleeve back down, seemingly uninterested in revisiting the past. “Back in Macha- Makala- Makcha- whatever that city in Russia was called. Back there I knew we’d be chased again, sure. But I never thought he’d catch up with us so soon.”

“Gotta be ready for anything in this line of work. I think I can get us out of here, if we’re lucky.”

“We still don’t even know why he’s chasing us! Hell, we don’t even know why we’re gathering equipment anyway. I wish that for once my stupid dreams would give us some answers. That’s the only Christmas present I want now that you two have fixed things with each other.”

Mason returned shortly after that, looking nervous, like they’d be found out any second. “Alright, there were some screens right by the entrance, one corner of the store has them playing some annoying K-pop music video on a loop.”

Mabel smiled, the inklings of a plan beginning to form in her mind. “Great, then I have an idea. Mace, you’ve been keeping notes about the BH in your Journal right?” He nodded and passed the book over. “Let’s see, how’s he maintaining the camouflage? Aha, perfect, a field projector. I can work with this.”

“Work with- work how?”

She didn’t look up, just grabbed her phone out of her jacket and started looking back and forth between it and the journal. “One of you create a distraction, lure the Black Hole in. I have a plan in mind that should stun him, then the other one of you can swoop in and take him unaware. Just a hunch, but I think it’s our best shot.”

Mason and Pacifica looked back and forth at one another, unsure. Pacifica grinned defiantly. “It’s our only way out. We’ll show that Ass-Hole who’s boss.”

* * *

“Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!” The tinned audio of Santa kept repeating throughout the store. Mason was surprised by how westernised India had become. Though there were a few local Hindu idols dotted about, the store was clearly geared towards an international clientele. He was slightly aggrieved to realise he was starting to think like Mabel, analysing the world through a constant lens of ideologies and motivations behind everything.

“Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!” That thought didn’t make listening to Santa’s clipped cheerfulness over and over again any more tolerable. He was getting bored, as well as hot and stuffy under his disguise. He also felt like an obvious target, sat right in the central Christmas display at the heart of the store.

Ahead of him, Pacifica presented an even more blatant target, stood in the open with no cover or disguise. He sincerely hoped that Mabel could pull off whatever she had planned, especially while heavily injured.

After an agonising wait, their adversary finally appeared. Mason paid attention to the way the Black Hole faded into existence. It was like he was stepping out of a pool of invisible water as the light ceased to flow around him unnaturally. He faced Pacifica down and spoke to her in that deep artificial voice that concealed every hint of personality. He really was a Black Hole, everything about him was concealed, even his identity. “You tried to run, but evidently fatigue has overcome May Pines. You can’t defend her or her brother for long.”

“We’ll see about that.” Pacifica crossed her arms. Though Mason couldn’t see her face, he knew she most likely had a fiery look of determination, a look that always made his heart flutter. She could be impressively domineering when she needed to be.

The Black Hole paced back and forth. “You’ve been making quite a mess of things. Running about like a headless chicken, getting in trouble. But now I can stop you from bringing about our end.”

Pacifica started circling around the Black Hole. The two of them moved to keep a steady distance from each other at all times. All the while, Pacifica was leading him towards the screens set up in the corner of the store. “I don’t know who you’ve been listening to, but you don’t know anything about us.”

“Oh, I know _everything_ about you, Pines. I know about the portal, I know about the burning, and I know about the Zo- ah!” The Black Hole clutched his helmet as a burst of static came from every angle. He was stood right in the corner now, where the screens were displaying fields of static snow.

“_Hi there, this is May-May and the Hog! Your resident DJ and hacker! Prepare to get owned sucka!_” Mabel’s voice came from the store’s speakers, replacing the jolly Christmas music. She’d used a backdoor programme to get into the systems. Her association with the head of Chiu-tech gave her an intimate knowledge of the coding systems being used, making it trivial to take control. “_Merry Christmas Motherfu-_”

Waves of magnetic energy flowed out from the screens as Mabel’s broadcast cut out, trapping the Black Hole in a digital net. The interference from his gravity field projectors started glitching, casting out faded after-images all around. It was having an effect on his wellbeing as well – he looked like he was having a major headache, flailing around wildly.

Mason leapt up from his hidden perch amid the Christmas display. Gleefully tearing off the fake white beard, he ran towards the Black Hole still wearing the rest of his Santa outfit. He and Pacifica each grabbed one of the assassin’s arms, trying to pin him down.

Despite the effects of Mabel’s hack, a crude retro-engineering of the screen’s holographic displays, the Black Hole was still a formidable opponent. He easily threw both of them off and tried crawling out of the magnetic field’s range.

Pacifica flicked her wrist, deploying Mabel’s borrowed grapple gauntlet to hook a line around the Black Hole’s wrist. She pulled down as hard as she could, knocking the assassin over onto his front.

In retaliation he fired out with his free arm, launching his own grappling line from atop his fist. It looped around Pacifica’s leg, and two of them struggled back and forth over the two ropes. Mason ran at the Black Hole, who yanked out his jagged metal blade to keep him away.

He batted it away, since the assassin couldn’t keep a hold of it with only one hand. The impressive strength of the Black Hole was a deterrent, but while one arm was occupied Mason had the advantage. He swung his arm around the Hole’s head, getting him into the same kind of headlock that had helped him avoid being shot earlier.

He forced his arm upwards to try and wedge the helmet off. It was fastened tightly, but he could feel it loosening with each tug. “Who are you!? No more games!”

“Enough!” The voice Mason heard was not the same modulated one the Black Hole usually spoke with. It was higher pitched, full of anger. A leg swept out and knocked Mason down. On the other side the Black Hole, feeling his arm nearly give, released his cable. The sudden lack of tension caused Pacifica to fall over as well.

The Black Hole fumbled forwards, rolling out of the screens’ area of effect. Bent double, he slammed down on a control pad on his wrist. Before their eyes, he disappeared again, re-immersing himself in the cloak of light bending rays. The effect wasn’t perfect, as Mason and Pacifica watched him flicker in and out as he ran down the street.

Mason and Pacifica hugged each other, savouring this temporary victory. They’d scared the Black Hole off once. Time would tell if they could do it again.

“What do we do now Mason? He’ll be back soon for sure!”

“We run. We run as fast as we can, and we get the hell out of here!”


	16. The Fallen Star

Speeding along a dirt road, Mabel drove the 4x4 through the pitch black wilderness. They were deep into the Japanese countryside, a land of sloping tree-lined hills and valleys. 

“Are we getting close bro? I feel so sleepy,” Mabel whispered, so as not to wake Pacifica, who was napping in the back seat with her chunky pink headphones on. 

Mason smiled warmly at the sight. It had been a rare treat to see his wife sleeping so peacefully with all her recent dreams. “We’re narrowing it down, the sun crystal gives off a massive amount of energy. It’s a super-refractor as well, not only can it split the wavelengths of light, it can even split reality itself!”

“Yeah yeah, it’ll be great for the portal, cool your jets. I just wanna know how far it is to the damn thing.”

“I think we’re… getting close?” He shrugged, and Mabel gave a small grunt of annoyance. That’s what he’d said the last ten times she’d asked. It didn’t help that the dirt track they were driving on was bumpy enough to keep sending minor jolts of pain through her shoulder. She still had a constant dull ache from the gunshot wound.

“Listen carefully to this Mabel, I’ve identified the mythology we’re dealing with. Legends say that Amaterasu, legendary solar deity, was responsible for keeping balance across the earth. Oh, you’ll like this part, she had the highest position in the Shinto pantheon.”

“Ha, thank goddess for that. You go, sun girl!”

“She was said to have bequeathed a mighty jewel.” He read slowly from Journal 7. “The Yasakani no Magatama, I think I’m saying that right. It’s a dead ringer for our sun crystal. That jewel is supposedly held in Tokyo, but it’s probably a replica. The real one is much more powerful than a bit of flashy decoration.”

Behind the twins, Pacifica suddenly jerked awake and pulled her headphones down around her neck swiftly. Mason leant over to try and see what was wrong and heard a brief burst of static coming from the headphones. Before he had a chance to ask Pacifica what it was, his attention was drawn back to the road in front of them.

A bright light was heading straight towards them from up in the sky, angled downwards. “Mabel, swerve!”

She twisted the wheel around, sending them skidding off the road out of the way of the approaching light. The light crashed into the ground just beside the road, sending chunks of earth flying skyward.

Mabel slammed on the breaks hard. The three of them jolted as the car came to an ungraceful stop on a small embankment. “Woah. And that, folks, is why we wear seatbelts.”

Shaken, the trio got out of the car. Next to the road there was a small newly formed crater. At its centre was a massive chunk of rock, still glowing from the heat of the impact.

“Woah, a meteor!” Mason had already started sketching the rock enthusiastically.

Pacifica rubbed her eyelids. “Looks like I woke up just in time. That thing nearly hit us! What are the odds of that?”

“Maybe it’s destiny!” Mabel was grinning down at the slowly cooling rock. “A shooting star that just happens to land right by our feet! Wait, something’s moving!”

She pointed down at the large boulder. Chunks of rock were falling off as something pushed its way out from within. Mabel wanted to get closer, but it was still too hot around the crater. Staring intently, the trio watched as a figure emerged from inside the meteor.

An alien being stood before them. Of the trio, Pacifica was most amazed, having never encountered a proper extra-terrestrial before. Mason hurried to complete his sketch so he could document this new creature.

Mason and Pacifica’s interest was academic - this was some new curiosity they could learn from. But Mabel’s interest was much more based in a sense of overwhelming awe.

The alien stood up to its full height, allowing Mabel to get a clear glimpse. The being was humanoid, and her arms and forehead had pink fins sticking out, giving a vaguely aquatic look. Her skin was scaly, tinged a pale blue. But as she moved, Mabel saw the colours of her body shifting every second. She shimmered like the surface of a soapy bubble, a vast array of colours constantly appearing and disappearing all over.

As she approached, she left a trail of after-images behind, like how the Black Hole had looked when his projector had glitched out. Mabel was utterly entranced by this woman from the stars. The alien ran a hand over her tall head fin, then looked up at the trio. Her large pink eyes looked up at them. She gasped and recoiled.

Mason held out his arms. “It’s ok, we’re peaceful.”

Cautiously, the alien climbed out of the crater. Mabel couldn’t take her eyes off the dazzling trail of copies she seemed to leave behind. Blushing slightly, she held out a hand for her to shake. “Hi, this is Mason and Pacifica. I’m Mabel!”

The alien took her hand cagily and first, but as they shook she calmed slightly. “I am Zera. I- ah.” She fell forwards, disoriented from the crash. Mabel caught her and helped right her back up.

“It’s ok, I’ve got you. You’re on solid earth.” Mabel blushed slightly as she removed her hand from Zera’s hip.

“Earth? That is the name of your world, yes?”

“Yeah. What’s it to you?” Pacifica eyed the alien warily. “Pretty lucky you landed right by our car.”

“Indeed. Your native help could be of assistance. I will be most grateful if you could point me in the direction of my Ark Crystal.”

“Wait, you know about the crystal?” Mason closed Journal 7 and narrowed his eyes. This was more than simple coincidence anymore. “Tell us what you know.”

“As you wish.” The alien bowed and began to recount her tale. “I am the last of my kind. My people were wiped out by a tribe of hunters, who prized us for our… unique abilities.”

“Such as?” Mason reopened Journal 7 to start writing parts of this down. Both Mabel and Pacifica chuckled at his action. Even when he was suspicious he couldn’t resist documenting every word spoken.

“You see the way I move?” She stepped back and forth, displaying her after-images clearly. “My race had a special relationship with the flow of time. We exist beyond the simple narrative of linear cause and effect. In a sense, we move through it more slowly, passing through each moment multiple times. That creates the illusion of my doubles that you Terrans see.”

“Fascinating!” Mason was hanging on every word.

“You’re beautiful,” Mabel added. “Uh, I mean, your species, it’s so amazing to see.”

“Thank you, Mabel. It is a rare sight, one that few will be graced to witness.”

Pacifica nodded, accepting the explanation. “So what’s it got to do with the crystal- ah, goddammit!” She heard another noisy blast of static from her headphones still dangling around her neck.

Mason came over to her, leaving Mabel to converse with Zera. “Paz, are you ok? What is it?”

“Ugh, it’s these headphones. They keep acting weird. Back in the car, I was trying to listen to _Forever Summer_ – you know how those nostalgic songs help me sleep. Then it was like we went through interference; I just get this white noise garbage.

Mason gave a quick look over at the headphones but couldn’t see anything wrong. “I’m no expert, but they look fine on the outside. They’re wireless, maybe something’s blocking the feed to your music player?”

“Whatever, it’s annoying, but that’s not important right now. We need to talk about ‘close encounter’ over there.” She gestured over at Zera and Mabel, who were having an animated discussion about something. Pacifica pulled Mason into a conspiratorial huddle. “You don’t think it’s a little suspicious, an alien dropping in out of nowhere right near the crystal we’re looking for?”

“You don’t trust her?” He looked over at the alien. It looked like she was trying to explain something to Mabel, who was smiling and constantly sneaking glances at the fish-like being. “She seems trustworthy enough. We shouldn’t jump to any conclusions just cause she’s different to us.”

“It’s not like that. I just get this weird vibe from her. That doe-eyed innocence, it’s all too convenient when she’s after the same crystal as us.”

“Maybe we should give her a chance, Mabel clearly seems to trust her.”

Pacifica raised a single eyebrow. “Wow, you’ve really changed your tune since Tibet. A few weeks ago you’d have done the opposite of whatever Mabel did.”

“Yeah, well, my outlook changed. Let’s try and make friends with the alien, she is the last of her kind after all. That’s gotta be tough to go through, knowing you can never have any friends, or start a family-“

“I get the picture dork. Fine, we’ll try it your way. But don’t say I didn’t tell you so if it turns out I’m right. You know I’m good at reading people.”

The couple went back over to Mabel and Zera. Mabel excitedly filled them in. “Guys, Zera here’s been telling me all about how she was shot down! There’s a bounty hunter after her, just like with us and the Black Hole! And the crystal is the way she can save her people, we have to help.”

“Indeed, encoded in the crystalline matrix is a record of my kinds’ genetic code. With that I can bring them back from the brink of destruction.”

Mason nodded. “I see, your people hiding it here on Earth must have influenced the region’s folklore and culture. Classic Von Danniken interference!”

“Mabel tells me you have a way to locate the Ark Crystal.” Mason showed her the scanner. “Then there’s no time to waste. We must hurry before- get down!” She pulled the trio into a bush at the edge of the road.

There was a blue glow and tinkling sound as another alien teleported in beside the impact crater. Wearing a silver spacesuit, this alien’s upper torso was once again humanoid. But below the waist it had four legs with broad three-toed foot pads. Mabel thought it was like a centaur and an astronaut had a baby. It started sweeping the landscape with a handheld device.

As stealthily as they could, the trio led Zera back to the main road. Deciding that taking the 4x4 would make too much noise, they headed off into the night, guided by the energy trace on the scanner.

The alien hunter finished her initial assessment of the crash site. The fugitive’s trace was still nearby. She discovered the group’s footprints leading away and pulled out her pistol. The fugitive had acquired native assistance in finding the treasure. Hopefully they wouldn’t get in her way.

Before leaving in pursuit, she noticed the hastily parked 4x4 and rolled her eyes. “Terrans,” she tutted, and left a parking ticket on the windshield.

* * *

Mabel and Zera walked slightly behind Mason and Pacifica through the night, following their lead towards the crystal and taking some time to get to know each other better.

“I’ve told you my story, Mabel Pines. What about you? What brings you and your family out here?”

Mabel tried to think of a way to condense her answer to that question. “Well, at the moment we’re sort of on a mission. We’re going around our planet gathering stuff to help fix things. That what I do usually too, help people out.”

“You’re an activist?”

“Or a troublemaker as Dipper used to put it.” The two of them laughed at this. 

“I think I like you Mabel. You have such a noble spirit. You don’t let anyone talk down to you or tell you what to do. I admire that.”

“I admire you too.” Mabel found it fascinating that she could find a sense of kinship with someone born on another world. “You’re really impressive, standing up against tyranny, even though you’re all alone. I know what that’s like.” She looked ahead at her brother, remembering how dismissive he’d been. “I’m here for you Zera.” Lately there’d been some improvement in that area, but since Christmas Mason's progress had slowed. He was getting overly cautious again, much to her chagrin.

Zera at least responded positively to Mabel’s openness. “Thank you. It’s nice to travel so far and find such quick friends. That goes for you too, Mason and Pacifica!” She yelled forwards and the couple waved back awkwardly.

“Looks like Mabel’s charming our space guest already.” Pacifica wanted this little jaunt to be over soon. “If we do find this crystal are we just gonna hand it over to her? What about the portal?”

“If it’s as important as she says, then yeah. It’s not ours to keep anyway, her people created it.”

“How about we just leave her to find it herself then?” Mason looked at her reproachfully. “Ok, that’s kinda mean. But still, we don’t wanna add _another_ psycho hunter on our trail. The invisible one is plenty to handle already without ‘Four-legs bad’ piling on top.”

At that moment they all heard the double blast of a horn from far off. It was like a police siren had been slowed down and deepened. Zera looked panicked. “That’s the call of the hunter! We have to move quickly, she’s caught my scent.”

“No, wait.” Pacifica held out a hand, confusing the others. “Mabel, you go with Zera, Mace, give her your scanner.” He did so reluctantly, handing the beeping device over to his sister. “Right, now you and I are gonna confront this ET and show her who’s boss.” She looked over at Mabel. “Look after our alien friend, get her to the crystal. We’ll give you time to get to it.”

Mabel smiled appreciatively and took Zera’s hand. After they’d run off in the direction the scanner showed, Mason turned on Pacifica. “What are you thinking Paz? We can’t fight an alien bounty hunter! Mabel’s the trained one anyway!”

“Relax doofus. I wanna see what we’re up against first-hand.”

Up ahead, Mabel and Zera stopped running and panted. “Woo, reminds me of the old Mystery Hunt days.”

“Ha, I haven’t run like that since spawning season in the marsh pools.”

Mabel looked at Zera once more. She couldn’t resist staring at the alien, something about her just felt alluring. “Tell me about your world. What’s it like, how does Earth compare?”

“It’s hard to tell, your world seems so dark. On my world we have this thing called the sun.”

“It’s just nighttime. You see, the planet spins around…” She saw that Zera was grinning. “Hey, no fair!”

“Sorry, your face was priceless!” Mabel joined in, laughing goofily. Zera stopped when she shivered, clutching her arms to her chest. “I will say one thing about this world. It’s very cold right now. My kind are cold-blooded, we like the heat.”

“Ooh, remind me to knit you a sweater sometime. Seriously though, what is your planet like?”

Zera looked up at the stars and frowned. “On S’aren, my kind are spawned in boiling pools a hundred at a time. It’s a constant competition to see who can get the most resources to survive. 50% of my clutch never made it onto land.”

“That sounds harsh. Reminds of how we got into Japan. I got the bright idea to try a migrant boat, off the record. So we could get in without any documentation. We were thrown in a tiny dinghy with about 40 people, I was so scared we were gonna drown. It was alright in the end, but terrifying at the time. Eesh, that’s lowered my mood.”

“No, but that’s what it’s like for us! And for those that survive the initial swarming, it’s a paradise. Our planet was under the strain of strong tidal forces, so our society could be powered by geothermal vents. They provided for all our needs. We had vast cities built into the walls of the geyser columns. On the surface, we were free to play in the vast emerald oceans and marvel at the glowing moons above. I wish you could see it Mabel.”

“Hey, maybe someday you could take me. Like on a date, but in space, heh.”

Zera didn’t seem to catch Mabel’s intentions and sadly drew her eyes back down to the ground. “No Mabel, we can’t go there. It was destroyed by our enemies, like that quadruped chasing us now. I can never go back.”

Zera didn’t expect to be grabbed in tight embrace by Mabel. “I can’t imagine what that’s like to go through. Remember that you’ve made new friends here. I can be a shoulder to cry on.”

Reciprocating the hug, Zear wrapped her scaly arms around Mabel’s back. “Thank you Mabel. I see that you truly understand me.” They began to part from the hug, but just before doing so, Mabel reached up and pecked a quick kiss on Zera’s cheek.

Blushing immensely, she fumbled with the scanner. “Uh, the crystal, let’s go get it so you can save your people.” Zera smiled and kissed her slowly and tenderly on the cheek. Mabel’s heart fluttered slightly. 

She was a bit unsure about this newfound crush. Zera wasn’t human, yet she found her so stunning. She wanted nothing more than to stand by her side and protect her. She shook her head. Thinking about such things could wait ‘til after they were done tonight.

The scanner display showed that they were very close to the crystal’s signature. Mabel saw that there was a small side valley. Heading down that trail with Zera, the two of them came to a dead end by the opening of a stream. She slapped the scanner a few times, wondering if Mason’s notoriously unreliable device was acting up again.

“Let me try something.” Mabel passed the scanner to Zera, then held her arms out in front of her and began mumbling a chant under her breath. She heard Zera’s voice asking what she was doing, but it was if it was muffled. Around her she felt the spell, an aura detection technique from Bokamoso’s teachings, begin to build in power.

When she completed the spell and looked up she gasped. At the end of the valley, nestled among the high slopes, had appeared a faded pagoda with sloping rooves. “Woah, I just meant to sense where the crystal was, not conjure a palace! Where’d that spring from?!”

Zera was bouncing excitedly. “Who cares? It must be the sanctuary of the crystal! Mabel, that spell was amazing!” She ran towards the ghostly structure, leaving a trail of happy Zeras showing the way for Mabel to follow. She hesitated at the door. “Have you ever seen something like this?”

“What, you mean ghost buildings showing up outta the ether? No biggie, I’m an Adventurer Extraordinaire. Wait, so this isn’t something your people set up?”

“I’ve never seen anything like this. Let’s get the crystal before whoever set this place up gives us any more surprises.”

* * *

“This is a terrible idea.”

“Hush Mason! What was it you said about jumping to conclusions?”

Mason and Pacifica stood side by side in the wide-open valley, awaiting the arrival of the bounty hunter. Pacifica insisted that they act as neutral as possible. They weren’t the hunter’s target after all, why would she be interested in hurting them?

Her theory was tested when a shot landed right in front of them in the grass. Both jumped, but a glare from Pacifica made sure that Mason stood his ground. She called out to the hunter, standing above them on a ridge with her pistol held loosely. “Hello there. Sorry, we’re locals. Not fond of strangers on our turf. Care to explain what you’re doing on our planet?”

The hunter holstered her gun and cantered down to their level with thudding steps. She looked back and forth between the pair, then sighed and removed her helmet. Mason and Pacifica were slightly disappointed to see that she appeared mostly similar to a middle-aged human with grey hair. The only alien feature above her waist was the fact that her skin was the colour of lilac. Mason detected a faint scent like the flower too, a scent he recognised since Pacifica had used a similar lilac scented shampoo on her hair in the past.

Eyeing them up, the hunter tapped a screen on her wrist. A hologram displayed an information badge with a golden seal. “Residents of Sol 3, I am a judicial officer of the Galactic Quadrant Defence. As a representative of the GQD, I have full extraction rights for my target, Zera of S’aren. Obstructions of my work will be punished with a penalty fine or possibly arrest. If you have any queries, please address them to the GQD office on Beltraxa.”

The couple looked at each other, then back at the alien. “Wait, so this is legit? You’re not a bounty hunter?” Mason noticed that she wore another GQD sigil on her arm.

“Bounty hunter?! You must be joking. Have you been in contact with the fugitive?” The officer rolled her eyes. “Typical, spreading lies as usual.”

“How about you first?” Pacifica opened her hands wide, trying to appear non-threatening. “We met Zera, sure. But we don’t know where she’s gone. Maybe if you tell us why you’re chasing her, we can help. She’s the last of her kind, if this is really important-”

“_Last of her kind_? Ha!” The officer sighed and opened another hologram. This one was a wanted poster, with Zera’s face emblazoned on it. 

Pacifica read off the screen. “Wanted for grand theft planet, destabilising the government on Khalia VIII, and numerous other petty crimes.” Pacifica’s eyes widened as she incredulously read the rest. “Also has suspected involvement in the infamous Rill gang, and possible bet fixing on Dahoon. Huh. Well how about that. Oh, and also seventeen parking violations.”

Mason kicked out at the dirt. “I don’t believe it! Was anything she told us true? What about her species ‘existing beyond time’?”

“That?” the officer said. “That’s just an off the shelf kid’s toy, a dazzle! It’s only there to look flashy and give people mild headaches if they stare too long.”

Mason slapped his forehead and Pacifica groaned. “Great, my first experience meeting an alien in the flesh and she turns out to be a space Mabel. Well now what?”

The police officer started heading off, shifting her powerful legs. “I must track her down before she achieves whatever sordid objective brought her to this world. I don’t see a trail from here.”

“Mabel must have covered her tracks too well.” Mason reached in his jacket, but then remembered that he’d given her the scanner. “Damn, we’ve got no way to track her!”

“Wait, I think I’ve got something.” Pacifica held one of her headphones up to her ear. “There it is, that buzz of interference again. Hey, space lady!” The officer pouted and crossed her arms. “That dazzle you mentioned? It affected our eyes, but does it work on other frequencies too?” The alien nodded, unsure of what Pacifica was getting at. “Good. Then I’ve got a way we can track our fugitive down.”

* * *

Inside the spectral pagoda, Mabel and Zera discovered that the walls were made entirely of paper screens. Even the doors were just screens that could be slid out of the way. The light inside was a warm yellow. It made Zera sparkle even more than she had outside, once again drawing Mabel’s eye to her shimmering colours. She idly wondered if Zera had any control over the colours, and whether she could mimic the background to camouflage like a chameleon.

After passing through two sets of double paper doors, they came to a large central hall, dominated by a stone statue of what Mabel assumed must be Amaterasu, the sun god. She had a warm smile on her carved face. Held high off the ground in her hands within a flower petal was the sun crystal, its radiance powerful enough to illuminate the whole room with an orange glow. The crystal itself was jagged, clearly some kind of natural formation as opposed to a carved jewel.

Mabel put her hand on Zera’s shoulder. “There it is buddy. Hope.”

Zera was studying the statue doubtfully. “How do we get to the crystal? That thing looks unclimbable.”

“Leave that to me, I’m an expert. Unclimbable doesn’t exist in my language!” She stood back and fired her grappling hook at the statue’s head. Pulling on the rope, she launched herself up onto the statue’s hand. She ignored the pain once again throbbing through her arm from the bullet wound and examined the glowing crystal. There was a heat radiating out, but it wasn’t uncomfortably hot. It was large, large enough that she’d need both hands to lift the thing.

She was about to try grasping the crystal, when she heard a familiar tinkling sound. Zera backed away from the centre of the paper pagoda as three figures teleported in. Mabel fired down her grappling line for Zera to hold onto, then started coiling her up.

She was confused when it became clear who the teleporting figures were. Mason and Pacifica stood either side of the centaur bounty hunter. Once Zera reached the hand platform, Mabel addressed the new arrivals. “Guys, what’s going on? Have you been captured?!”

“Not exactly,” Pacifica said. “Mabel, meet officer Equata. She’s been telling us all about your ‘new friend’.”

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Mabel noticed Zera visibly tense. “Zera? What’s going on?”

“Face it Mabel,” Mason called out. “We’ve been played.”

Equata stepped forwards. “Zera of S’aren, under the authority I possess, I declare you under arrest. Come down and surrender.”

Mabel looked at Mason and Pacifica in disbelief. “You guys can’t be serious! You’re trusting _her_?! Zera needs this crystal for her people and you want to hand her over to this killer?”

“Ask Zera about it. Ask her to switch off the dazzle and tell you the truth.” Pacifica said the last word sadly. She could tell that Mabel was going to be hurt by this, whatever the outcome.

Mabel turned on Zera. She didn’t want to believe what they were saying about her newfound alien friend. She stared deep into her eyes, trying to see the truth. Zera’s eyes darted away, not willing to meet Mabel’s. “Zera. Look at me. What’s a dazzle?”

Without saying a word, Zera tapped her neck. A green light flashed. Then Mabel saw Zera’s after-image effect slowly fade away. Now when she moved there was no dramatic trail. Her skin, though still a pretty sight of many colours, also seemed slightly duller than before.

“But- but all the stuff you told me. About S’aren, about yourself. Was all that fake?”

Zera shook her head emphatically. “No, of course not Mabel. Everything I told you about my planet was completely true… well, except for it being destroyed, that part was kinda false.”

“B-but the crystal, saving your race-“

“That’s fake too!” Mason shouted up. “It’s not a DNA repository. It’s not even from space! Guess I should have given more credit to the local Shinto mythology and not jumped straight to ‘aliens did it’.”

Mabel’s mouth dropped open. Her shock and distress were replaced by anger. Anger at Zera for lying, but also anger at herself for being so stupid as to blindly believe her. “Well done. You played me like a fiddle. Silly old Mabel’s just too dumb to see the signs.”

Zera held up her hands as she backed towards the edge of the platform. “Please, it’s not like that! I have a good reason for wanting to steal that crystal.” Mabel raised an eyebrow and waited patiently for the answer. “I want to steal it so I can sell it to the highest bidder! Ok, now that I say it out loud, yeah, that is kind of a weak motivation.”

“Aghh!” Mabel grabbed Zera and held her up by the shoulders. Dangling over the edge, she clung desperately onto Mabel’s outstretched arms.

“Please, Mabel, I can explain! The reason I’m a criminal, it’s not out of greed! I’m just trying to stick it to people like that cop down there.” She nodded her head down at the officer, who along with the others was tensely watching the proceeds. “People of her nature, they don’t care about the little people like us. What I told you about my childhood was all true, I swear. I had to crawl up from nothing. Even when I got to a stable position, the rich higher ups just belittled me. Do you know what that’s like, to see the injustice in the world and want to fight back, any way you can?”

Mabel hesitated. Something about Zera’s words rang true, even though her faith had been shaken. She’d instantly trusted her story. Maybe now she knew why. She’d always put her stock in that kind anti-authority style. Rage against the machine, even if you didn’t have a clear end goal in mind. Tear it all down so you can build something brighter.

She looked at Zera again. This time the alien locked eyes on her, imploring Mabel to listen. Mabel stared long and hard into those pink irises.

She held her arms out, pushing Zera away. She felt the alien clutch on as hard as she could, and she could almost smell her fear. Then Mabel winked. Zera suddenly felt a pull and landed on top of Mabel.

A whispered voice spoke quickly into her ear. “Zera, act like you’ve overpowered me!” 

Zera’s eyes widened as she got the message. “Ah, no! Curse you Mabel Pines!”

“Yarr! You’ve got me in your grasp ye filthy sea-lubber!”

“Why are you doing a pirate voice?”

“Just go with it!” Zera rolled Mabel over and she was temporarily distracted from their ‘fight’ by the intense physical contact. Then Zera accidentally brushed her bullet wound, causing her to actually cry out in real pain. “Ah, that really hurts!”

Zera covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh, I’m sorry! Should I stop?!”

“No, don’t stop, uh, pretend I’ve hit you.” 

Zera dramatically fell backwards. Mabel crawled over to the lip of the hand platform and called down. “Help, throw me up one of those teleporters so I can escape!”

Mason and Pacifica shared a wry glance that went unseen by Equata. “Best do what she says officer, she sounds like she’s in _real_ trouble,” Mason said in the fakest attempt at sincerity ever. Pacifica rolled her eyes – her husband was an awful actor, and even worse when he was trying to conceal the truth.

She ran over and grabbed one of the small discs the alien officer used to transmat from place to place. Ignoring the officer’s protestations she tossed like a frisbee up to Mabel, who caught it despite still lying down in pain. 

Mabel’s eyes glanced down at the disc, which she handed to Zera. Whispering, she squeezed her arm. “Go. You can’t have the crystal, but I’m no narc. Stay out of trouble.”

Zera reciprocated the arm squeeze then stood over Mabel. From below, it almost looked like she was about to make a killing strike. But Mason and Pacifica knew better. Right before Zera activated the disc, she made a snap decision.

Mabel was completely surprised when she felt Zera’s lips slam onto hers. She immediately leant into the kiss, making several passionate smooches and running her hand over Zera’s head fin. Then Zera stood back, grinning wildly, and activated her teleporter. “See ya round, Earth girl.”

In a flash, she was gone. Mabel rested her head back on one of the giant fingers of the statue, then got to her feet. Making sure the bandage on her shoulder was still attached, she made her way over the glowing orange crystal. She picked it up, feeling a heavy clunk when it disconnected from the floor. Then the platform shuddered.

On the floor, the couple and the police officer watched as the paper walls of the room began to tear away and vanish. The enormous statue too began to crumble. They saw Mabel leap off the outstretched praying hands, swinging off with her grappling hook. She landed between Mason and Pacifica, who caught her and made sure she wasn’t hurt after her ‘fight’ with Zera.

In a few moments, the pagoda was gone, leaving them all standing around in the open air, once again under the stars. Pacifica ruefully grabbed a tattered strand of paper, one of the few surviving traces still standing. “Aw, shame. That paper building was kinda cool. I’m not sure if it’s origami or architecture, but I liked it.”

Mason helped his sister heft the orange slab of sun crystal over to Equata. “I guess you’ll be wanting to take possession of this then?” 

Mason offered it to her, but Equata shook her head. “No, why would I want that? It’s a Terran artefact, no business of mine. My only mission here was catching the fugitive.” Relieved, Mason took the crystal back and set it down. Mabel was about ready to leave, but the four-legged officer held out a small ticket. “Compensation. For any damages incurred while trying to prevent the criminal’s escape.”

“Thanks.” Mabel grabbed the ticket saltily. She resolved to tear it up the moment Equata was off-world.

The officer moved slightly away from the trio, then raised her front legs in a kind of salute. “I bid you farewell. With luck my pursuit of the renegade S’aren will be fruitful.”

She vanished in another tinkling teleport. Pacifica held up her middle finger at the space she’d just occupied. “Yeah, you can go rot in space for all I care.”

Mason put his hand on her shoulder. “Come on, we’ve gotta get this damn heavy rock back to the 4x4. Mabel needs to rest her arm.” Pacifica nodded and the pair lifted the mighty crystal. They were about to head off, but noticed Mabel was staring up at the sky, not far off from where Zera had teleported away.

There was only one word to describe what she was feeling. Quite simply, Mabel was starstruck.


	17. The Dreamtime

Sat in the cabin of the rented boat, Mason was going over Journal 7. The boat was smaller than the Stan ‘O War, which had been left in a random port back in Mexico, with much less of that ship’s charm. He turned over to the next page in the journal, resolved on examining intently. After weeks abroad they’d gathered a sizable amount of useful portal parts but were still no closer to figuring out what they needed them for. He was determined to end their blind stumbling around today.

He’d already thought of a way to gain some clarity, Pacifica’s acceptance of his plan willing. He was now just waiting for the girls to return from the market on the island with some food for their trip to the mainland.

He reflected on their journey so far. They’d almost circumnavigated the globe at this point, checking off every continent except Antarctica. Yet they still only had scant clues. All they’d achieved in that time was finding more mysteries and lurching from one adventure to the next. It had been nice touring the world he supposed, getting to see so much. He also had to admit he was very happy with how his relationship with Mabel was back on the rise again.

As he reviewed another one of Bokamoso’s rituals, he saw Mabel and Pacifica in the boat’s rearview mirror. He smiled, glad that they’d be off soon. Then his smile vanished when he saw that they were running towards him in a sprint.

They were making frantic hand gestures telling him to start the boat. He slammed his journal shut and immediately reached for the ship’s wheel and turned on the engine. The satisfying chug of the diesel motor kicked into life.

He looked back at the girls and gasped. He could see why they were running now. Chasing them along the dock was the Black Hole. He cursed their luck. They’d tried to dock only in isolated island chains recently to throw off the scent. Seems he was a better tracker than that.

The boat started pulling away just as the girls arrived. They leapt from the dock and landed hard on the deck.

The Black Hole reached the end of the pier and fired off a few shots, which harmlessly splashed into the water short of the boat. Mason gave a sigh of relief, then set the boat on their next course. Another close call. That would be their last, he was going to make sure of it.

* * *

The story of the Rainbow Serpent, as told by me, Mabel!

Once upon a time, Australia was super barren and empty. No life like kangaroos or koalas, and not even any bushes or trees. Boring!

So one day, this rainbow serpent called Goorialla, went looking for his tribe. As he moved, he cut massive gorges throughout the land with his body. I guess he was pretty chonkers. He went all over, exploring far and wide in the search for his peeps.

How Goorialla got separated from them, and why there were sentient rainbow snakes in the first place are questions for another story. Funny though, we’ve encountered a lot of snake myths recently. Kukulkan, the Scylla. More of that ‘convergent evolution’ Dipper was telling us about.

Anyway, Goorialla, the big snekky boi, he got tired of looking for his buddies, so went to sleep. Now this next bit is kinda weird, so bear with me Paz. The snake dude was lonely, so he decided to make new life… somehow.

He called, ‘frogs, come out’, and wouldn’t you know it, there were some frogs just rising out of the earth. Each of these frogs were fat with water they’d drunk. Goorialla tickled the cute little froggies until they spat out the water. Apparently there was enough kvetched up frog water to fill in all those gouges the serpent had made by lugging itself over the land.

I guess all that ribbit water was, like, magic or something, cause it made grass and trees spring up outta the ground! Now there were plants, Goorialla summoned all the other animals. No, I don’t know where they were living before that, you’ll have to ask Dipper. So blah blah, all the animals showed up, your kangas, your roos, etc.

This next bit is the really important part according to Dip, so listen closely. Goorialla made rules that all the animals had to follow. Hey Dip, what were these rules exactly? You don’t know? Brilliant, we’ve got a real expert on our hands here. Ok, ok, the story.

So our snake said to the animals like a weird police officer, “If you obey the rules I’ll turn to you into human beings, otherwise I dunno, I’ll turn you to stone?” And that’s where mountains and people come from, bad and good animals.

See, Dipper thinks the story is some kind of metaphor. Not just about the creation myths, but something to do with the a-mortals too. They’re like the animals that ‘followed the rules’, so they get to ascend higher than the rest of us. Seems like a bit of a leap, but I guess he’s been right about this kind of thing before.

Oh, and one last sub-story. These two bird brothers wanted shelter from the rain, so Goorialla said they could hide in his mouth. But psych! It was a trap! Gooey was just after a quick snack! He ate those two bros up quick.

Eventually people came looking for those two, so Goorialla went and hid up in the sky where no-one could find him… kinda like Zera now I think about. Ah, I miss her, she was so pretty and colourful… uh, I mean, forget I said that.

Anyway, the snake was super guilty, so when it rains he shows his colourful body off, and that’s where rainbows come from, the end!

…

…

“Brilliant Mabel, 5 stars for the story telling. Now what the hell does any of this have to do with my dreams?”

* * *

Amidst the red desert of Australia’s outback, the trio arrived in their rented 4x4 at a small cave in the earth. Surrounding them was open countryside, bare of all but the hardiest scrub plants and withered dead bark.

Mason smiled at their current situation. Everything was shaping up perfectly.

“Ugh, this sand is gonna get everywhere.” Pacifica gingerly stepped out onto the rusty desert. She didn’t like being led around blindly. It was bad enough with her dreams, let alone when her husband did it too.

Shielding her eyes from the sun, she looked into the cave. It was a shallow space, only a few metres wide. As her eyes adjusted to the dimmed light, she could make out paintings and petroglyphs covering the smooth inner walls. She was suddenly struck with a strange recognition. It was much like another cave wall she’d seen in her dreams before, with the wheel of symbols and the reassuring green eye.

Here the painted symbols were less abstract, showing ancient people hunting animals, or day to day scenes. “It’s a prehistoric site. People must have used this cave to shelter from the heat of the outback.” She reached out, intending to touch the artwork, then halted. These images were likely hundreds, if not thousands of years old, and she didn’t want to damage them.

Mason strode past her into the cave, checking with his journal and nodding at what he saw. “Hmm, yes, looks well suited for our purposes, only one entrance, nice approach vector.”

“What are you babbling about, dork? And what’s Mabel up to?” After she’d told Pacifica the story of the rainbow serpent, Mason had stopped to let his sister out about a mile before they’d reached the cave, without explaining why. Pacifica was understandably frustrated.

“She’s got her own mission. I didn’t want to burden you too much.” Pacifica rolled her eyes and snatched Journal 7 off him. “Hey!”

“Look Mace, it’s about time you realised that we’re a team, remember? You and Mabel tried doing things separately back in England and it didn’t work. So stop ‘protecting’ me or whatever and explain what’s going on. Please.” She put her palms together in a prayer and flashed a toothy grin to get him to stop being so obtuse.

Mason nodded and led her back out of the small cave. Outside it was that time of day just before twilight, before the sun had truly begun to set and cast a strange golden light over the land. 

“I’ve been reading heavily into Australian folklore these last few days. I think this is the perfect place to start finding answers. Look around.” Mason panned a hand around the plain.

Pacifica looked, seeing the barren landscape stretching to the horizon. No animals, few plants, an arid plain expanse of monotony. “Alright, I’m looking. What am I supposed to be seeing?”

“That’s just it, you’re not meant to be _seeing_ anything, at least not with your eyes.” He could see Pacifica’s mouth twisting into a frown, so carried on. “This place is a very simple one in terms of geography. We’re right at the middle of the continent here, it’s very old, very stable rock beneath our feet. ‘Oh what stories this land could tell, if it only had a mouth to speak’ and so on. Just the kind of place we need with few distractions. It’s quiet and isolated too, which is helpful, no one else butting in.”

“What’s your plan then? We use the peace and quiet to, I dunno, have a nap?”

“Eh, sort of.”

“You’ve lost me again.” She rubbed her eyes and stared out. There was a faint heat haze out in the far distance, but otherwise she had few landmarks to focus on. No goals or way forward either.

“I know what you’re thinking about. But don’t worry, that’s why I’ve brought us here. I didn’t detect anything on my scanner, there’s no portal parts. This was a side-trip of mine I’ve been planning for a little while now. I’m going to help you explore your dreams.”

Pacifica turned to him quickly, hope evident in her eyes. Mason almost couldn’t bear to look into them, so strong was her desire for answers. It made him more determined than ever to pull off his plan.

“Alright, so this place is free of distractions. Like in that story Mabel told you, when the world was flat and devoid of life. In the aboriginal mythologies, that time was one where supernatural feats could be accomplished, before reality settled down. I want to try and cast your mind back as far as it can go, to the primordial state of the dreamtime.”

“And we’re really trusting in primitive cave paintings to guide us forwards now?” The hopeful look in Pacifica’s eyes started to fade and she crossed her arms. “I thought you tried probing my dreams already? It gave us a start but nothing solid.”

“Trust me Paz, this time I’ve done all the research. This should work. Your dreams have consistently been about the future. Now I wanna try and ‘hijack the feed’, so to speak, and angle them at the past. Specifically the Black Hole’s past.”

Pacifica’s mouth dropped open in surprise, but then she cradled her chin in thought. “That’s… honestly kinda smart. Well done, I’m impressed. How do we go about shifting my dreams then?”

“I’ll explain inside the cave. I just wanna wait for Mabel to get back.”

“What’s her role in today’s ‘dream therapy’ session then?” Pacifica suddenly felt something jump onto her back. Panicking, she reached around and yanked her assaulter off, throwing them down into the sand.

Smiling up at her was a very exhilarated Mabel. “My role is flipping the tables! I’m hunting our hunter.”

Pacifica put a hand on her chest in a vain effort to slow her racing heart. “Jesus, Mabel. Next time don’t jump-scare your way back to us. I thought you were the Black Hole!”

“The Black Hole, yeah! That’s what I was doing. Setting traps!”

Pacifica’s eyes narrowed. She stared accusingly at her husband, who paled under the severe gaze. “You’re using us as bait?! We can’t beat the Black Hole one to one! We could barely overpower him when he was dazed by those screens!”

“Please Paz, it’s all part of the plan. Girls, come into the cave and I’ll explain.”

“Fine,” Pacifica begrudgingly said, “but my patience is wearing thin.”

“What patience?” she heard Mabel mutter to herself teasingly. Normally she wouldn’t have taken offence, but Mason’s antics had her high strung.

In the dim light, Mason gestured at the walls of primitive art. “These tell the stories of the local area from thousands of years ago. Mabel, show Pacifica while I set things up.” He left to grab some equipment from the 4x4.

Pacifica’s eyes scanned over the ancient etchings again, marvelling at the weight of history pressing down. “Amazing. Human culture standing the test of time. Hey, what about this bit? It looks like it’s written in English.”

Mabel gasped. “Oh yuck, that’s graffiti! Stupid vandals! Probably dumb teens who think it’s ‘cool’ to deface a sacred monument!“

“Says the girl who’s helped destroy the Basilica Cistern _and_ the Bent Pyramid in the last few months.”

“Those were for a good reason at least!” The girls chuckled together. It was partly just a reaction to how close they were to danger currently, with the Black Hole so close to finding them. A bit of gallows humour was good to cut the tension.

Mason returned carrying a set of telescopic poles and a stick of chalk. He drew a hasty shape on the cave floor, then positioned five of the poles around what he’d drawn. Pacifica looked over, seeing that he’d drawn a pentagram. “This is like Potgieter’s set up.”

“Exactly!” Mason excitedly said. “I'm combining everything I know, Potgieter’s stuff, Ford's research, the local folklore, our own experiences in the dreamscape.”

“And these poles, are they some kind of dream amplifier?”

“Alpha wave generators, a more advanced model of the prototype I trialled out back when we were teens. They’re finely tuned to create a null state in your mind. No excess thoughts should be able to invade. Once you’re settled, and with the spiritual significance of this location, it should have the desired effect of shunting you into the dreamtime. In essence, your mind will become un-anchored from linear time as we know it. All your ancestors will exist as a part of you, stretching back into the deep time of the past.”

“Great, does that include my parents?” Mason frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. Now Pacifica was glaring at him. “Is this gonna suck? My ancestors were all cheats, crooks, or generally awful people, remember?”

“Hopefully under the vast weight of history that shouldn’t matter. I mean, it’s not like every single one of your ancestors was completely evil.” A no-nonsense look from Pacifica made him doubt that statement. “Just sit in the circle Pacifica. Once you’re in the dream state, Mabel and I will enact phase 2 of the plan.”

“Which is?”

“It’s better if you don’t know.” Pacifica was about to protest, so he spoke quickly to silence her. “No, seriously. For this to work your mind needs to be free of external influences. We’ll handle the physical plane, you just put everything you can into your mind, ok?” He ran a hand through her hair and kissed her head, trying to show her that he had everything under control. “I believe in you Princess. You can do this!”

She smiled weakly up at him, then settled into place within the chalk sigil. She closed her eyes and began breathing slowly and deeply. “Alright, here goes nothing. How long is it supposed to take?” She scrunched up her face in annoyance when Mason didn’t reply. She knew he was likely already consulting the journal for the next phase of his plan.

With nothing for her mind to focus on, she was hyper-aware of her own journal in her jacket pocket, could feel the edges of its cover pressing slightly against her side. She tried to ignore it and think of how to cast her mind back in time, whatever that would even feel like. Soon she began to drift off. 

The last thing she thought of before nodding off was whether Mason and Mabel would be able to work together on the plan. They’d been getting closer recently, and it would be a shame if she couldn’t be there to witness them teaming up in unison properly again.

* * *

Satisfied that Pacifica was soundly sleeping, Mason emerged from the cave with phase 2 of his plan about to go into effect. “Beautiful, everything’s going as planned for once. So glad I stumbled onto this site in my research.”

Mabel was toying with her gauntlet, trying to decide what ammo would best suit the mission. “You know, we have some native blood, I looked it up once. One of mom’s great-grandmothers was a Serrano native, Yuhaviatam tribe. It means ‘people of the pines’”

Mason counted on his fingers. “That means we only have, like, 1/16th inheritance, that’s barely anything!”

“Just saying.” Mabel shrugged, and looked out at the horizon. “Is this gonna work? We’re risking an awful lot if things go wrong.”

“It has to work.” She noticed that he’d slouched his back. Since Pacifica went to sleep he’d visibly become less confident. “Think about it, in the dreamtime, the land and the mind are as one. You’ve rigged the surrounding area with traps, so when the Black Hole shows up we’ll know about it. With him trapped nearby physically, Pacifica should be able see the relevant images in the dreamscape!”

“Sounds simple,” Mabel said dryly. “Well we’ll know when anyone comes within a good radius of this place. I planted mantraps, noise bombs, a few net traps. You can count on my handiwork. Actually I’m surprised no animals have triggered them accidentally. Can you believe that, we've come to Australia and we haven't even seen a kangaroo yet!”

“That's the point, Mabel. We needed somewhere with limited external stimuli, for Paz’s sake. It also means we have a better chance of anticipating our enemy. I hope.”

Once again his façade was slipping. “Man, Dipper, you really are a lot less sure of yourself now Sleeping Beauty’s out of it. What gives?”

“Now that I’m out here, I’m just a tad worried about the Black Hole. I mean, what if something does go wrong and Pacifica gets hurt, or worse!”

Mabel shook her head. “You can't keep using her as an excuse bro. She can take care of herself, that's always been the case.”

“You've noticed then. I figured it was kinda obvious.”

“Dipper, I may be pretty blind without my glasses or contacts, but I’d had to have my eyes painfully gouged out like a Tokoloshe to miss the signs.”

“Thanks. That’s some real brutal honesty there,” Mason deadpanned. He ran a hand through his curly brown hair, trying to de-stress. “Agh, I know I need to stop being over-protective. But I care about her so much!”

“Aw! That’s adorable!” Mabel smooshed up her cheeks and grinned widely at her brother. “The first step to solving a problem is to admit it, your key to self-actualisation and fulfilment starts now!”

“Sure thing ‘Doctor Mabel’,” he said with a smile. “I hope you used the same level of skill to psychoanalyse me as you did to prepare those traps.”

“You can trust me, I’m a professional!” She yelped as Mason kicked her feet out from under her, tripping her onto her front. “That doesn’t count, I wasn’t prepared.”

Mason chuckled. He was glad that some semblance of ‘business as usual’ had returned between him and his sister.

He didn’t have long to savour the moment though, as they heard a loud bang echoing over the sparse desert.

“That’s one of my noise traps! It must the Black Hole!”

“Can you be sure? That sounded very far off.” He doubted himself though, with the way the sound had echoed it was hard to pinpoint where exactly it had originated.

“I’ll use an aura spell to check.” 

Mabel closed her eyes and began a whispered chant under her breath. Mason’s eyes widened - he’d never realised how far along her magic use had come. A few seconds later, a pulse of faint light bloomed around Mabel. It shot off in a circle around her, before fading a few feet from her. A couple of seconds later, a wave of similar light bounced back at them.

“Yep, it’s him alright, the spell bounced right off his aura. Now we wait to see if the Black Hole comes in this direction.”

“That was impressive stuff. One of Bokamoso’s spells? I never caught you reading my journal.”

“That’s cause I steal it when you’re asleep, ha! Bo’s got some cool tricks. I’ve been practicing for a little while now, plus we've been texting.” Mabel showed him her phone. There was a text from the South African shaman, it seemed they’d been corresponding about the precise pronunciations of words in one the incantations. Mason couldn’t fail to also notice that Mabel had also been in recent communications with Eli, as well as several names he didn’t recognise – likely her contacts in activist groups and on the black market, who’d been invaluable in tracking portal parts.

He compared it to his own meagre contact list, consisting of just Mabel and Paz, who he only texted regarding mission stuff anyway. It once again reminded him of the advice Quattro had given him, to call the number of the one person he’d consider asking to act as backup. But he didn’t know how to do it, how to just reintroduce himself into Wendy’s life. Mabel had always been better at keeping up those long distant relationships. If Mason didn’t work incredibly hard to keep up, as he had with Pacifica during their teen years, then he usually ended up losing contact by simple negligence.

There was another bang from over the horizon. Mabel looked like she was doing some calculations in her head, her tongue stuck out as she thought hard about the distance the sound had travelled relative to the first. Then she smiled. “He took the bait.”

Now it was only a matter of keeping the Black Hole nearby while giving Pacifica enough time to explore the dreamtime and figure out who he was.

* * *

One minute Pacifica had been quietly thinking to herself in the cave, the next… she found her herself still sitting in the cave. Confused, she got up. She no longer felt remotely tired. It was if she’d never tried to fall asleep at all.

She looked around, then jumped back startled. Within the complex poles, sitting on the chalk outline in the dust, was herself. Or rather, her sleeping form. Pacifica waved a hand in front of herself, but there was no response.

Then it hit her. She _had_ fallen asleep after all! This must be the dreamtime, and she was observing her own body from outside. “Well, this is bizarre,” she muttered to herself as a kind of coping mechanism. 

She didn’t feel any sense of ‘oneness’ with her ancestors. If anything, she felt absolutely mundane. If this ‘place’ really was as Mason had described it, she’d have to explore her surroundings some more.

Stepping out of the cave was like walking onto an alien planet. The red sand had been replaced with bands of purple and yellow, while the sky above was a lurid green. Suspended in the green were more stars than she'd ever seen before, as if she was looking upon an entire galactic spiral spread out.

She thought for a moment that Mabel must have slipped her some of the drugs she'd told them she definitely wasn't carrying. That seemed like the only explanation for her current state.

Then she saw Mason and Mabel. Or rather, she saw what she thought might be representations of the twins at least.

Standing just outside the cave was a single tall tree. It was unlike all the other tress they’d seen so far since arriving in Australia. Those trees had been eucalyptus or gum trees, with grey, sun-dried bark and sharp, bent branches. This tree stood up straight and had flourishing green leaves all along its height.

It was a Pine Tree. “Of course,” Pacifica said, grinning and rolling her eyes. “What else.”

Beside the tree was what could only be described as an endlessly excitable sparkle of flame. Occasionally small bursts of electricity would break off and explode like firecrackers in rainbows of colour.

Side by side. The Pine Tree and the Shooting Star. Mason and Mabel. 

Mason, steadfast, resolute, reliable.  
Mabel, abundant with energy, vibrant, unpredictable.

They were opposites, yet that helped them work together oh so well.

Pacifica spent a few moments just contemplating what these symbolic representations meant. She supposed that in this strange realm where thoughts became real, this was just the way you observed things, interpreting through a skewed lens. Like how history is just what is remembered of the past, rightly or wrongly. The territory is not the map.

She wondered what she was supposed to do now. This wasn’t like her usual dreams so far. She was practically lucid dreaming at this point, fully conscious of what was going on. Mason hadn’t told her what to do once she actually reached this point.

She looked around for some sign. On the horizon she spotted it. Framed in a heat haze, there was a figure standing in the distance. She wore a long robe and hood. Her back was turned to Pacifica. Though she was far away, Pacifica could see that she was unusually tall, around 8 feet.

“Hello?” Pacifica tried to call out, wary of actually wandering too far from the cave. “Please, can you help? I’m looking for guidance.” The hooded figure started to turn. Pacifica waited with bated breath but was left disappointed. Right before the hooded face revealed itself, the figure melted away like a mirage. It was just another in the long line of mysteries she couldn’t solve. One big question mark.

Storm clouds began rolling in as Pacifica kicked angrily at the sand. “Gah! Why can’t anything ever be simple. If building this portal is so damn important, and I’m the only one who gets these visions, then speak to me! I’m talking to you, whoever’s making me have these dreams! Give me something straight for once!” The clouds impassively covered the green sky filled with those infinite stars, silent to her pleas.

Then it was like her prayers were answered. Another figure had arrived in this vast plain. This time it was one she definitely recognised. Unlike the twins, she saw him exactly as she knew him in the real world. The Black Hole had arrived.

Trying to move closer to see if she could learn more, the whole space between them contracted. She was beside the Black Hole in seconds. All she saw was that blank, expressionless mask. She just had to push through.

The moment she had that thought, walls of ice sprung up out of the ground to block any approach. Pacifica slammed her fists against the frozen barrier. If she could only pierce the veil, to see her enemy’s true form once and for all.

For the first time since waking up here, she noticed her Pine Tree Pendant. Not only was it spinning like crazy, it was also floating upside down, so great and unusual was the force acting upon it in this realm.

With every pound on the ice she felt it begin to yield. Cracks began forming. Whoever the Black Hole really was inside, they must not be used to this kind of mental assault. His mind had instinctively thrown up barriers to protect itself though, as if the assassin’s lack of identity was a core part of his psyche.

Eventually the ice shattered in a massive explosion of shards. But Pacifica felt a reciprocal force act on her from within. Perhaps the Black Hole had been trying to act in a similar way on her? Maybe he even saw her as a llama, Mason would be sure to find that ironic. 

Suddenly the colourful desert was gone, swept away and replaced by near blackness. There were tight corridors of metal, exposed pipes jutting out. It was like the packed passages on board a submarine. She felt like she was zooming out, seeing a strange jagged line out in front of her.

Pacifica realised it was a mountain range. She was seeing it as if through a darkened glass, merely the silhouette of a true location. Yet it was one that held a special significance to her. One of the most momentous occasions of her entire life had happened on that mountain range, she could feel it.

This felt more like her dreams, seeing vague half-formed patterns of the truth. She now knew what had happened when she’d broken the barrier. She'd wanted to see the past, but her dreams naturally tended towards the future. So she'd ended up in the middle. What she was seeing was the present. 

This was related to the Black Hole, some kind of headquarters or hideaway. A bunker under the mountains where their enemies plotted and waited. Finally a concrete clue, somewhere they could investigate. Finally they could go on the offensive.

One image began to blot out all others. It was one she’d seen in her dreams countless times. The green open eye, always staring. She got that odd warm feeling of safety looking at it. She had to know how it connected with the Black Hole. She tried to push her mind in further, she was so close.

Unfortunately, the symbol reacted to her push. It started twisting awkwardly, reforming itself. The warmth Pacifica had felt vanished in an instant. Now she only felt incredibly cold, devoid of life itself.

The green symbol was now of a snake, eating its own tail. The Ouroboros, a symbol of infinity, the everlasting endeavour. But there was also something morbid about the imagery, that cannibalisation of the self, turning against one’s own flesh in a blind pursuit to satisfy the darkest urges within.

Then she woke up and saw no more.

* * *

Her eyes shot open. She was back on the floor of the cave. There was no time to waste. If the Black Hole had been near in the dreamtime…

Outside, Mason and Mabel were observing the desert with looks of worry. “He’s getting close Mabel, are you sure you put enough false trails out there?!”

“I’m positive, no way he’ll sniff out the real one!”

“Maybe we should act now, while he’s disorientated-“

“No! We have to stay here to defend Paz. If we go out there and attack he’ll obviously know we’re here and all the delaying tactics will be wasted.”

Pacifica put one hand on each of the twins’ shoulders “Guys, guys! I’m awake now!” This didn’t have the desired effect, as both twins jumped in fear and whirled round. Panicked, they both gave a massive sigh of relief when she didn’t turn out to be the Black Hole.

“Pacifica, thank god. Did you go to the dreamtime, what did you see?”

“Questions later, let’s get some distance on the Black Hole first.”

They piled into the 4x4 frantically, not stopping to pick up any of Mabel’s traps or Mason’s dream amplifying equipment. Once they were at what Mason deemed a safe distance from Mabel’s distraction course, he asked once again Pacifica what she’d seen during her nap.

“I saw a bunker, buried beneath a mountain range. It was one I recognised. In Switzerland. You remember when we went there, Mace?”

“How could I forget! So that’s where the dragon’s lair is.” He pulled out his phone. Hesitating for only a moment, he dialled a number he had saved from years ago. “Then we’re going to need backup.”


	18. The Bunker

The Pines trio were the only people waiting in the lobby of Geneva Airport. Tired from their long flight from Sydney, they were chilling out and waiting for a certain plane to land. It was hard to stay awake, given that it was after midnight.

Mabel’s noisy snoring, echoing in the empty arrivals lounge, was evidence of that. Despite the uncomfortable plastic seat, Mabel had an aptitude for falling asleep anywhere at a moment’s notice, which was quite a boon when travelling in difficult conditions.

Mason on the other hand was determined to stay awake until the flight touched down. He didn’t want to miss reuniting with an old friend. 

Beside him Pacifica was re-reading her book of Greek Myths. “Calm down Mason. I’m sure she won’t have changed that much,“ she said, despite seeming to focus intently on her book.

Mason raised an eyebrow at his wife’s insight. He didn’t think he was outwardly showing any signs of not being calm, but then Pacifica had always had a gift for reading him, as she was with the book of myths right now. 

“It’s just… it’s been so long. It’s not like when we met up with Mabel either. I’m not sure how I feel, whether we ended on a good note or a bad note. Wendy just kind of… drifted away from our lives.“

“I never knew her that well. Do you think her opinion of you will have lessened at all? You parted on good terms.”

“I don’t even know what she’s been doing these last few years. I don’t know if she’s moved around, or what jobs she’s had, or even if she got married! And yet…”

“Yet?” Pacifica prodded.

“Yet she still came when I called.” Mason sighed. “I hope that means she looks back on our time together fondly.”

Mabel stirred on the seat beside him, mumbling in her half-asleep state. “Bro, she won’t still care about the crush.”

Mason blushed. He couldn’t hide that was weighing on him too. So much of how he remembered Wendy was tied up in it. He turned to see Pacifica’s reaction to Mabel’s words. She was still reading her book, but he noticed that her lips were pursed ever so slightly.

“And you don’t have to worry about it either, Pacifica.”

“Worry- worry about what?” Flustered she dropped the book.

Mason took her hand reassuringly. “That crush I had was nothing more than my own dumb hormones. Unlike me, Wendy was always so self-assured. That’s what I see in you as well, Princess.”

Pacifica scoffed, but didn’t resist as her husband leant over and planted a kiss on her lips.

“Woah, you guys have really come on since the old days!” Blushing, Mason broke the kiss and stared over at the arrivals gate.

There she was, after so long. Hefting a heavy bag over one shoulder, Wendy was smiling in that knowing way she always used to. It wasn’t a wide grin, but it was enough to exude a breezy confidence at all times. While she was wearing the same green flannel as she’d done 15 years before, her red mane of hair was gone, replaced with a much shorter spiked cut. “Hey! What up my dudes?”

Mason quickly shook Mabel to wake her up fully. “Huh, whatcha doin’ Dip? It’s night, I wanna sleep.” Against her protests, he pointed his sister’s head towards Wendy. Wiping her eyes blearily, Mabel looked at her old friend.

Then, like an electric shock had passed through her body, she leapt up. “Wendy! You’re finally here!” Mabel ran over and embraced her in a massive hug, as was her normal custom.

“Woah, Mabel, you’re so much taller than before. Heard on the news that you’ve been up to _a lot_.”

“Oh yeah, my life has been so crazy! It’s great to see you, what’s your life been like?”

“Oh, you know, been keeping busy. Now this is a sight for sore eyes.” Wendy walked over to where Mason and Pacifica were still sitting. Mason awkwardly stood up, blushing even harder. He rubbed his arm, unsure how to act.

Wendy raised an eyebrow. “Yo man, I’m not gonna bite. Come here!” She threw her arms open.

Mason accepted the hug. At first it only increased his blush but then he began to relax. It was just a simple hug between friends. Thankful that he hadn’t suddenly reawakened his crush, he parted and smiled. 

Then he suddenly remembered something. “Ooh, I’ve got something for you Wendy!” He dived into his backpack and retrieved the grey and brown fur hat. He held it out, offering it to Wendy. “Here. I kept it warm for you.”

Wendy was a bit confused but passed the hat back. “Dude, keep it. I know how important reminders of the past can be. Sorry I didn’t keep onto _your_ hat, oops.”

“Ha, it’s fine. That old cap probably wouldn’t fit me anyway.”

Wendy looked past Mason to Pacifica. “Hey there. Guess we were never properly introduced.”

Pacifica strode up with a blank expression on her face. “You’re early.”

“Huh?”

“Your flight. It wasn’t supposed to land for another half an hour.”

“Oh. I guess we must have been lucky getting in quicker.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Pacifica trailed off in thought, then held her hand out professionally. “A formal greeting then. I’m Pacifica.” She was surprised when Wendy shook her hand energetically.

“Wendy. Nice to meet you. Shame I missed the wedding, bet you were both fabulous. So guys, where we headed?” She looked over at Mason. “You said there was some kind of mission?”

Mason was taken aback by her eagerness. “That’s it? You just show up and you’re ready to jump back into action.”

Wendy lazily shrugged. “Sure, why not. Anything for you twins.”

“Gotta warn you though,“ Mabel said seriously. “We’re going up against some pretty nasty folks. A full-frontal offensive, no holds barred. It won’t be easy.”

“When was it ever? Let’s get rolling!”

The trio packed up their equipment hastily as Wendy swiftly headed out of the airport lounge. Outside, the group piled into a hired car. Mabel slid into the driver’s seat. “I’ll drive guys.”

“Weren’t you fast asleep five minutes ago?” Mason protested

“Yeah, exactly! I’m rested up, you three get some sleep.” 

Wendy and Pacifica got into the backseats, while Mason rode shotgun. He looked back, seeing that Pacifica had deliberately sat tightly up against the opposite door, keeping a distance from Wendy. Sighing, Mason looked outside at the dark night instead.

Out across Lake Geneva he could make out dozens of twinkling orange lights rising high into the sky. These were the tell-tale traces of the grand mountains of the Alps. Seeing them in their full glory would have to wait until tomorrow.

He also noticed the moon, full and glowing with an eerie yellow light, poking out behind a gap in the clouds. As he drifted to sleep, lulled by the car’s motion, he mused that with the way the moon was framed, it almost resembled a slit-like eye, staring down from above.

* * *

“Tell me again why Mabel’s not coming with us,” Wendy asked as they rode the cable car up towards the distant peak. Below them was a straight cutting through the alpine forest, with stanchions laid out to support the cable.

“She doesn’t like cable cars. For some weird reason,” Mason said. “It’s not about heights, you’ve seen her use her grappling hook all the time. I think it’s something to do with being confined, she can’t trust in anything other than her own ability. That or it’s repressed memories of the time we all rode Trambience.”

He shuddered playfully, making Wendy laugh. Pacifica didn’t seem to hear; she was just staring down at the mountains.

“Anyway, it might work out for the best,” Mason continued, trying to ignore his wife’s distracted state. “By the time Mabel’s hiked up the land path she can act as backup in case anything goes wrong for the three of us.”

“These folks you’re up against are playing for keeps then? Pretty crazy story you told me, about being hunted down. And you still don’t know why?”

“It’s a mystery. Pacifica had some ideas about who might be leading them – after our little business in Russia I’m inclined to agree with her. Isn’t that right, Paz. Paz?”

“Huh, what?” Pacifica shook her head. “Sorry, were you saying something. I was kinda out of it.”

“Something wrong?” Wendy asked. “Dipper used to do that same kind of ‘staring while thinking’ back in the day.”

Mason blushed a little, but Pacifica cradled her chin in thought. “These mountains, they mean a lot to me… to both of us.” Seeing Wendy’s obvious confusion, she pointed out the cable car window at a glade of trees above a nearby mountain village. “Right there, that’s where Mason proposed to me.”

“Aw, that’s so adorable. You finally plucked up the courage, nice!” She lightly punched Mason’s arm.

Pacifica wasn’t smiling though. “That’s just it though, that was one of the most important moments of my life. We’d nearly finished our backpacking trip around Europe, then Mace gave it a perfect ending.” She subconsciously linked her fingers through Mason’s. 

He noticed and tightened ever so slightly. “You’re thinking ‘what are the chances of this bunker being so close to that location’, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. It’s more than just my dreams now. Whoever set up the Black Hole, they _know_ us. They did this on purpose, maybe just to mess with our minds! I don’t like the idea that they’re twisting our past, our happiest moments, for some evil reason.”

She leant over and rested her head on her husband’s shoulder. He ran a soothing hand through her hair and whispered into her ear. “It’s alright Princess. Because today we’re going to stop them. Once and for all.”

The village of Taveyanne was pretty much the archetypal example of a Swiss alpine settlement. Charming wooden chalets were laid out in a wide valley dotted with purple alpine flowers. All the while, bell-wearing cows munched vacantly on the grass around the town. The deep chimes signalling their presence echoed across the mountainside.

But set up on the slope just above the village, numerous air vents could be seen dotted about. They were clustered around a low concrete building set into the side of the slope. The entrance to the bunker, displayed right out in the open.

“Bunkers like this were built all over Switzerland after World War II. Protection against Nuclear War. Those neutral Swiss, always making contingency plans.” Mason closed Journal 7, done explaining why the facility was positioned so brazenly, with no thought for keeping it hidden. “Whoever the Black Hole is working for must have repurposed the old tunnels.”

“And this Black Hole,” Wendy asked. “She’s the invisible one, who followed you guys all across the globe?”

“_He_’s the one, yeah,” Mason confirmed. “Pacifica saw this place in her last dream. Well, she saw the mountain range, I narrowed it down to this bunker specifically.” He strolled over to the bunker door. There was no sign of any obvious security or cameras. Just a single door.

Not waiting for any pomp or circumstance, he pulled the door aside with a clunk of metal. Inside there was little of interest on this level, just a few blank tables and tattered chairs. The main event would be down the long yawning staircase at the back of the room.

“Just like what I saw.” Pacifica stated as she gazed down into the darkness. “I don’t know Mace; this place seems abandoned.”

“It’s probably what they want us to think. The Author’s bunker looked abandoned too, and that turned out to have a shapeshifter living at the bottom.”

“Yeah, and we beat that ugly thing.” Wendy strode decisively down into the bunker, then turned to beckon the couple. “What are we waiting for? It’s time you two got some answers.”

Below ground the corridors were more tightly packed, with narrow concrete lined passages stretching in multiple directions. Shining their flashlights all around, they tried to find a way forward.

Wendy punctuated the silence. “Are you guys getting that weird tingly feeling. Like, we’re on an adventure, I’m feeling the hype!”

“Heh, yeah, all the time,” Pacifica said happily. “It’s one of those things I forgot I missed until we started our big journey. I think that’s what drives Mabel to be so reckless sometimes, that same feeling.”

“It’s certainly getting me pumped!” Wendy grinned at her, and Pacifica finally felt herself starting to warm to the redhead.

“So Wendy, has your life been as boring as mine and Mason’s?” Pacifica saw Mason frown for a moment, but then he stuck out his bottom lip. Clearly he agreed with her sentiment. “You moved to Portland, right?”

“Oh yeah, but that was years ago. I moved around a lot after that. Wound up working for my dad for a while, but logging wasn’t for me. I think I even got desperate enough to work in one of your parents’ factories at one point. You know how it is when you’re strapped for cash.”

“Uh, no, I don’t, not really. I’ve always been pretty wealthy.”

From up ahead, Mason could virtually hear the gears in the girls’ conversation grind to a halt. Despite both growing up in Gravity Falls, the two of them couldn’t have been raised more differently, with Pacifica sheltered and forced to succeed, while Wendy was laid back and free to do whatever she wanted.

Yet he knew they had things in common. That shared love of adventure, or a practical nature to solving problems. He hoped they could come together and see past their differences. Then he realised that this was how Pacifica must have felt recently about him and Mabel for weeks on end. How she so wanted for the relationship to work out and end the bickering.

The three of them came to what looked like an entry point to the bunker proper. A wall with a glass screen divided the room, with a closed steel door blocking the path. The room had a small control panel that Pacifica examined.

“If only we had Mabel’s hacking skills. Or heck, even her lockpicking would probably get us through that door.” She tried to switch the panel on, but there was just a quiet whine, and nothing happened. “Piece of junk!” She whacked the control panel. Her effort yielded some result, as each time she hit the panel a screen juddered and displayed some static.

Mason found another screen beside the steel door. He tried getting it to work in the same way. No reaction. It seemed dead.

“Let me have a try.” Wendy bent over the screen, blocking it from Mason’s sight.

He peered through the glass partition in the wall, trying to see what was beyond. It looked like a canteen or rest area. “I guess any people coming here would probably want to rest up when they arrived. You wouldn’t come to a place like this unless you were desperate.”

“Yes, got it!” Wendy cheered and Mason wondered what she’d done but was distracted by something on the control panel. For a brief moment one of the dusty screens switched on. The short spark of life gave enough time for Mason to see a red icon appear. It looked like a red eye with a cross through it. Then there was a heavy clunk. The image flickered, with the cross disappearing and the eye turning green.

The silver door to the bunker swung open. “Yes!” Mason cheered and ducked his head around the porthole. Wendy smiled at her achievement and beckoned him to go inside first. “Nice work Wendy! I knew having you along was a good idea.”

He tripped stepping over the lip of the doorframe and fell into the dark canteen. “Ha, watch where you’re steppin’ dude!” Wendy made sure to take a wide step as she entered after him.

Pacifica shook her head and smiled at her clumsy husband. “Alright, we’re in. No more playing around, from here on out we have to be serious about this.” 

Pacifica was about to step through too, when Wendy suddenly shoved her back, hard. “Look out!” 

She fell onto the floor of the outer room just as a metal shutter thundered down, blocking off access. At the same time, Wendy jumped back, falling onto Mason. 

Wendy and Mason untangled themselves then ran over to the window screen to check that Pacifica was ok. She got up back in the control room, looking dazed but otherwise ok. Though they couldn’t hear her through the glass, she mimed that she was going to look for another way in, and they nodded before she headed off.

“This sure is familiar, eh Wendy? You and me, stuck underground in a locked bunker.”

“It’s like we never parted ways. You think this one will have something creepy buried deep inside?”

He shone his flashlight towards the nearest hallway leading out. “Only one way to find out.”

Inside this lower section of the bunker it was still unlit and seemingly unoccupied. They checked several rooms, storage areas and bunk rooms mainly, but found no signs of life. Mason started to wonder if perhaps they’d entered the wrong bunker. There were several located throughout the Alps after all, it was possible that Pacifica’s vision hadn’t been as certain as she thought.

“Dude, I think I’ve found something! What the heck is that?” Wendy had exited out onto a walkway suspended above a wide hangar. Mason noticed a mechanism built into the roof to allow slide open, suggesting it was probably meant to be a landing site for aircraft. But standing tall, set against the far wall, was a triangular frame. Wires trailed out like coiled snakes in all directions around it.

He shone the torch around as his eyes took in the entire structure. He knew exactly what that thing was. “This is it Wendy. Proof positive that we’re in the right place. That equipment down there, it’s a portal frame, or at least someone’s attempt to re-engineer one.”

“_That’s_ a portal? Huh, I always imagined it as being smaller. It doesn’t look finished.”

“No, you’re right. There’s no portal aperture or energy output funnels. They haven’t even built it in the right orientation! The triangle should be inverted, not flat against the floor! It’s totally inefficient for channelling the power flow through the circuitry.”

“Is there a real danger then, if it’s a botch job?”

“Well they’re definitely not gonna succeed in completing it, since they don’t have a dynamic coherence ring, or a wealth of other smaller parts thanks to me and the girls snapping them up first. It’s clear the a-mortals mean business though.”

“What, the who?”

“Long story, I’ll tell you later Wendy.” He shone the torch along the walkway. “We need to keep going. There must be someone here overseeing construction, the Black Hole’s masters can’t hide. It’s time I brought out my secret weapon.”

“Uh, secret weapon?” Wendy had a hint of panic in her voice. “It’s not, like, gonna blow up or something is it?” Mason took off his backpack and pulled out a stubby grey device. “Is that a _gun_?!” 

Wendy’s eyes boggled at the idea, but Mason shook his head. “If you want real guns talk to Mabel. No, this is a magnet gun.” He cocked the gun and blue LED lights lit up along the barrel. Wendy now noticed that there were two metal prongs jutting out at right angles at the front of the device. “This was one of Ford’s inventions. Fires a highly charged beam of magnetic particles. Useful for both navigation and offence.”

“How’s that gonna stop the Black Hole?”

“When we were in India, Mabel used a setup of digital hologram screens to generate a strong magnetic field. That disrupted the density projectors that power his invisibility. I figure that a blast from this will have the same effect, should stun him and give us a window to get the upper hand.”

“Can I see it?” Mason handed over the gun to Wendy, who turned it over in her hands as if studying it. “I should hold onto this.”

“What, why?” Mason was confused why she’d be interested in the old piece of kit.

“Trust me, I wanna look after you, you’re like my favourite dude. This invention is my best way of doing that.”

“Well, when you put it like that.” He gestured further into the bunker, not knowing what would await them around the next corner. “After you then.”

* * *

Before heading up the mountain that morning, Pacifica had taken some time to study the architectural plans of bunkers like the one they were infiltrating. This diligence had served her well, as she found a small air vent with a wheel-turn handle, that led into a network of passages she was able to crawl through. She was glad that she’d kept slim over the years, thankful for her regular Zumba classes.

The vent system had been trivial to break into, which despite being a handy way past the sealed shutter set her on edge. This bunker wasn’t very secured from the outside, which she thought would probably be a rather critical feature. A bunker’s no good if it can be easily broken into. There was no kind of air seal either, what if the land above became irradiated or the air was toxic?

Maybe the a-mortals didn’t have to worry about stuff like that? Then she discarded the idea. They were _a_-mortal and not _immortal_ for a reason. Stuff like that could kill them as easily as any normal person.

Perhaps then this bunker hadn’t been chosen for its efficiency, but for location, or some other significance. That reminded her of how close it was located to the place where she’d been engaged to Mason. The thought pushed her forwards as she navigated the cramped vents.

Eventually she found a grill that looked down into of the inner corridors and kicked it away with a clatter. Hopping down into the passage below, she crouched and waited in case anyone had heard the noise. She didn’t hear any movement, but she did hear the whirr and beep of computers.

She’d finally found something active in this dank place. She edged towards the sound, mindful of every footstep. Mabel had once taught her some simple stealth exercises, about controlling your breathing, being aware of the placement of your body. Certainly her friend had nearly supernatural abilities to sneak up on you when you least expected it, so she trusted in those teachings.

Along the corridor was a half-open door, with soft light coming from within. She lightly opened it, seeing rows of consoles. It looked like something you’d see in a NASA launch control room. Only a single computer was switched on. 

About halfway across the room, hunched over the computer was a man dressed in a simple grey sweatshirt. Pacifica couldn’t believe her eyes for a moment. She switched on her flashlight and shone it directly at the man’s face. It would blow her cover, but she had to see for sure.

When she lit up the room, her eyes widened. She did recognise the man. “Eli?” He spun round on his chair in a flash, looking completely panicked. 

When he adjusted to the torch-beam and saw Pacifica, his face morphed into that same easy grin he’d worn in Russia to try and win her over. It hadn’t worked then, and it certainly wasn’t working now. “Uh, Pacifica. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Care to explain what you’re doing in a bunker belonging to our enemies, deep below the Swiss Alps?”

Eli grimaced. “Um, would you believe I’m here sightseeing?”

Pacifica raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Yeah…” he said, rubbing his neck. “Didn’t think that would work.”

Like a striking viper he suddenly launched himself at Pacifica. She’d been expecting him to make a move, so lightly dodged to the side. Seeing an opening, she whacked his back hard with the butt of her flashlight.

He grunted but managed to stay upright. A hand jabbed out and gripped the torch, then he yanked it away. The light clattered to the floor, briefly casting shadows all around and blinding both of them.

Before Pacifica knew what was happening Eli had her in a headlock. She tried to beat him and break free but found herself starting to lose consciousness from the lack of air. “Sorry Pines, it’s lights out. Time to sleep!”

“Nobody gives me an order!” She shot her elbow out backwards, and Eli’s pained high-pitch yelp told her she’d successfully connected with his groin. She broke away, then flipped her backpack off. If she could get something out to defend herself, like a knife or even her journal to use as a blunt instrument, then she’d have a huge advantage in the fight.

She pulled something sharp out: One of the circuit boards they’d collected for building the portal. It would have to do.

As she whirled round to confront Eli she felt a blinding pain. She reeled back, seeing white. Eli had hit her in the chin with the flashlight. He stood above her triumphantly. In Pacifica’s last moments before slipping into unconsciousness, she heard Eli say what almost sounded like an apology.

“May your eyes soon be opened…”

* * *

Further inside the bunker, Mason and Wendy had yet to encounter a single soul. Mason was starting to get worried. Maybe this place was just a reserve storage location for the portal construction, or somewhere the Black Hole only returned to infrequently. Instead of finding any answers they might have to set traps and plan to await the assassin’s return, a prospect he didn’t relish.

At least he was glad of Wendy’s company. She was striding ahead, as confident as ever. Holding the magnet gun in both hands, she looked like she could take on an army of Black Holes. “I guess things haven’t changed too much after all.”

“Huh, what did you say Dipper?”

“Oh, it’s just that… with Mabel…” He couldn’t find the words to say what he wanted. How to explain the most complex relationship of his life in simple terms.

Wendy put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey dude, I get it. I know how things were with you two. You spent a long while apart, then had a rough time getting used to each other again. You were scared of the same thing happening with me, it’s natural.”

“Wow, you knew about all that? You always were pretty insightful.”

“You’ll figure it out someday.”

They came to a long passageway that dead-ended in a room with a heavy metal door, like the one that had partitioned off the section where they’d been separated from Pacifica. This one was unlocked, so Mason heaved it aside.

The room beyond had several alcoves along the walls. Wendy came in, pulling the door shut behind her with a clunk, then shone a light around the room. Mason jumped at first, since it seemed that each of the alcoves had a person standing in it. Then he saw that they were empty suits hanging up and breathed a sigh of relief.

Wendy held the arm of the one the suits and felt the material. “Pressure suits. Must be for surviving outside the bunker.”

“Or for travelling through to the other side of the portal.” Mason examined the suits’ helmets closely. They seemed to have a fully inclusive oxygen supply and a wide viewing port. “These are probably just prototypes or test suits. They seem too flimsy for proper multiversal traversal.”

“Yo, over here.” He shone his flashlight over to Wendy. She was standing by tall upright tube built into the wall.

“Some kind of survival pod perhaps? Or could be storage for another prototype.” There was a small disc covering a circular window at about Wendy’s head height on the pod. He slid it down and came face to face with the Black Hole. “Oh my god. This is storage for a suit alright.” He scanned over the rest of the pod and found a mechanical release switch. He pulled it and the pod split open, revealing the full Black Hole armour, lit by strong floodlights. It was standing upright with its hands balled into fists and its legs apart, posing like a determined statue. If it wasn’t for how still it stood, Mason thought it would have looked like the Black Hole was actually in the room with him.

Wendy experimentally felt the armour. “It’s a lot sturdier than those other flimsy suits.” She rapped her knuckles on it. “Feels tough too. What’s it made of?”

“I’m not sure, something like Kevlar maybe, but 10 times as light. It’s quite a paradox, a super-light suit that nonetheless can generate a field of incredibly density around itself. Must have been an impressive feat of engineering to get it to not collapse in on the wearer.” 

Mason turned off his flashlight and got closer to the illuminated pod. He noticed that there were some wires connecting the suit to the pod. This whole setup could be a charging station for the invisibility projectors. He searched for a way to decouple the armour. “We can study this. With it we can reverse engineer our own, possibly find a weakness, maybe even find who had it made in the first place!”

“Uh, you sure that’s a good idea?” Wendy was frowning and stepping back, but Mason was too distracted by finding the suit to really notice.

“It’s fine, we can probably carry the suit out, Mabel can help when she arrives. Or, hell, one of us could just wear the suit until we get it somewhere safe. I just need to find… someway to… disconnect it…” He started mumbling to himself, caught up in the work of extracting the armour. He crouched down, reaching behind the armour’s boots. “Aha, looks like a master release button. If I just push… there!”

Right when he pushed the button the light coming from the pod went out. Plunged into darkness, he fumbled to switch his flashlight back on. When he successfully turned the light on, he panned it upwards.

The pod was empty. He opened his mouth in shock, then remembered that he hadn’t been alone. “Wendy?! Oh my god, are you alright!?” There was no reply from the darkness. He got to his feet rapidly.

Wendy had the magnet gun, that was his only line of defence if the Black Hole was here. He shone his light around the small room but saw nothing but the rows of suits. Except, one of them looked different from the others. He focused on that one, then was startled when it shimmered and vanished.

The Black Hole had been hiding in that alcove in front of one of the suits. Now he was coming for him, unseen and unpredictable. Had he already hurt Wendy?

This time he wasn’t going to be caught unawares as he had in Venice and Neo Vishak. He stood stock still for a moment, anticipating the Black Hole’s approach. Trying to listen over his heartbeat, he heard the slight noise of his footsteps on the metal.

Just as the assassin was about to reach him, he darted for the heavy door. He knew it was unlikely that he’d be able to pull it open in time, but it was worth a try. He got about halfway, then felt his ankle slip out from under him.

He looked up from where he lay on the floor. The Black Hole was above him now, visible once again. Mason had guessed this was some kind of fear tactic, since it seemed obvious that the Black Hole could stay invisible for long periods of time without having to show himself.

Without his secret weapon, he’d have to improvise until he found Wendy. He reached into his jacket pocket, then swung up at the Black Hole’s blank face mask with his journal in hand. He got a heavy hit in, pushing his opponent back. A rather crude attack, but it did the job. Mabel could always fix up the journal’s cover later if it was damaged. Keeping himself from damage was a far higher priority.

The deep artificial voice shouted at him. “Give up! You can’t win!” The Black Hole charged at him, getting his arms around Mason’s shoulders. The two of them span around, ending up with the Black Hole’s back forced against the door. A boot to the chest knocked Mason into the centre of the room. “Since I don’t have my rifle, I’ll have to use this on you.”

The Black Hole aimed a stubby gun at Mason. He recognised the weapon instantly. “My magnet gun! What have you done with Wendy!?”

“Your friend can’t help you now. Say bye bye.” He fired a shot straight at Mason’s chest. A beam of blue light shot out and he covered his face… then nothing happened. He lowered his arms away. 

Realising what had happened he laughed. “Ha! That device has no effect on living matter! Who’s the clever one now?”

“Still makes a good blunt instrument- yah!” The Black Hole tossed the gun towards him. It spun through the air professionally, like a throwing axe, a move Wendy would have been proud of. He ducked, then scrabbled to pick it up from the floor behind him. He cocked the gun then turned around to fire a retaliatory shot.

The Black Hole was already gone, so his shot just hit the door instead. “Uh oh.” The gun suddenly yanked him forwards towards the door, attracted to the metal. Instead of clanging into it, he bumped into something in the space before it and came to a stop. He’d bounced off the invisible form of the Black Hole.

He seemed to be dazed, so Mason wasted no time and fired another shot. This one finally hit its target. The Black Hole cried out. Mason saw the weird after-images being thrown about the room. He held the trigger tightly, not letting the Black Hole out of his trap.

The weird modulated voice began to groan under the effort of withstanding the magnetic blasts. What sounded like gibberish came out, before he heard a cry. “Please!”

He furrowed his brow. “If you wanted pity, then you shouldn’t have hurt my sister.” He moved forwards, backing the Black Hole up against the steel door. “You’re not gonna hurt my family anymore!”

“Please!” The Black Hole then collapsed onto his knees. He held up his hands, begging Mason to surrender. “Stop this, I can’t take anymore. Please, Dipper!”

Mason let go of the trigger and let out a quiet gasp. Only a handful of people in the entire world knew him as Dipper. Suddenly it was if the floor fell out from under him as everything made sense. How the Black Hole had acquired the magnet gun. How he knew about the portal. How he knew the Pines so well, enough to keep up with their every move.

Still weakened by the magnet gun, the Black Hole slumped onto his front, arms splayed out. Not wanting to believe what he’d realised, Mason bent over him and clutched the edges of the helmet. He slid it off with a hiss of air, then tossed it aside. Beneath it he was greeted by spiky red hair.

“No. No, it can’t be. Wendy, why?” She looked up him remorsefully. He could barely keep a straight face, almost on the verge of tears at the sight. All this time, she’d been the one hunting them. Pacifica had started to notice. That’s why Wendy’s flight had been early. She hadn’t been flying from the US at all, she’d been pursuing them directly all along. “This can’t be true.”

Wendy’s face suddenly morphed into a snarl of anger. Mason had been too floored, hadn’t expected her to strike out. He took a fist to the gut and doubled over. Wendy got to her feet and kicked the magnet gun into a far corner of the room. Then she put the Black Hole helmet back on, a decisive sign if ever there was one that she wasn’t messing around.

“I’m so sorry Dipper. This is all for the best.” He saw the flash of a jagged blade, then braced himself for the stab as Wendy raised her arms high.

The heavy metal door behind Wendy suddenly swung open, knocking her to the floor. She sprawled over, dazed or possibly unconscious. Mason’s eyes flicked up from her prone body.

“Woo, that mountain walk was great for the lungs!” Mabel was standing in the doorway, a thin layer of sweat coating her forehead, but smiling in a chipper way. “What have I missed?” she said innocently.

Not saying a word, Mason’s eyes flicked down to Wendy. Mabel gasped. “The Black Hole! I totally knocked him out! Woah, go me!” Mason’s shaking head made her doubt herself. “Uh, Dip, where’s Pacifica? And Wendy?”

He looked pointedly down at Wendy, and Mabel, using her intimate knowledge of Dipper’s non-verbal cues, took it as a sign to remove the Black Hole mask. She dropped it in shock when she saw the wearer underneath.

“But that’s-“ Mason nodded profusely. “But she-“ He nodded yet again. “Oh man…” This time Mason’s head could only flop back with fatigue. What a day this had turned out to be.


	19. The Open Eye

When Wendy awoke, she was staring up into the barrel of a long tube. “Easy now. This is loaded with real bullets.” She saw that the tube was attached to the underside of Mabel’s arm. “All it takes is a flick of my wrist. One wrong move and - bam! Pop goes the weasel.”

“And you’re the weasel.” She looked over to see Mason, sat on the edge of a bank of control consoles. He wasn’t looking at her, rather he was staring down at her old fur hat.

Wendy groaned and tried to get up, but Mabel tapped her gauntlet. “Ah ah ah, what did I say? You can lie down there while we figure things out.”

Arriving a few hours after the others, Mabel had largely followed Pacifica’s route into the Swiss bunker, infiltrating the lower levels through the vent system. Once inside she knew she had to meet up with the others. Trusting in an aura detection spell (once again a gift from Bokamoso’s repertoire) led her straight to Mason, the person whose aura she most recognised. Accidentally knocking out the Black Hole hadn’t been on her agenda for the day but was a nice surprise. Less nice was finding out that one of her oldest friends, had been the Black Hole all along.

Now Wendy Corduroy was finding out just how determined the twins could be when pissed off. She tried to get her bearings, seeing that they’d carried her out of the suit storage room and into one of the computer labs. “Mabel, please listen-“

“Do I have to warn you again?” She made a flicking motion with her wrist, not quite enough to set off the gun, but enough to send a clear message.

“Let… let her speak Mabel.” Mason said this slowly. He wanted to hear how she justified herself.

“Thank you, Dipper.”

He shook his head. “Don’t thank me yet. Just say what you’re gonna say.”

Wendy got into a sitting position. “This is gonna sound crazy, but everything I did was for a good cause.”

Mabel tilted her head, as if she hadn’t heard her correctly. “Good cause? Oh, good cause, that explains everything. Ya hear that Dip, she did for a good cause… WAS THIS FOR A GOOD CAUSE!” Mabel tore the arm of her jacket away and got up in Wendy’s face, showing her the still bandaged wound from being shot in India.

Wendy recoiled, clearly uncomfortable being faced with such a direct consequence of her actions. “Look, I can explain. There’s a lot you guys don’t see, it goes back further than just me.”

“So why did you have to lie to us?” Mason put the hat away and looked at Wendy. “Why? What did we ever do to cause you to hate us so much?”

“I don’t hate you Dipper.” She heard Mabel scoff but carried on. “You were acting far too recklessly. We had to stop you from going too far.”

“What do you even mean? We didn’t do anything! Or is this some line fed to you by your a-mortal masters?”

“A-mortal masters… you’ve got it totally backwards dude.”

“Don’t play coy, we know Crane put you up to this.”

“Who?” 

For a moment Mason saw that Wendy was genuinely confused. His brow furrowed in thought, lost at how to talk to his old friend. “Gabriel Crane… he’s a-“

“Not very nice guy. Just like Selchen was.” 

Mabel and Mason spun around to confront this new voice. He leant in from around one of the room’s doors, smiling genially. Mason’s confusion could only grow to new heights as Eli Corazón waved at the pair.

“No, not you too!” Mabel gasped. “Not you Eli, not after all we’ve been through. Tell me this is all fake, please!” She was grasping at straws and she knew it. Mason supposed it must be just as bad as finding out Wendy’s betrayal, a minor heartbreak no matter how messy her relationship with Eli was.

Then she lifted her arm from Wendy and pointed it at Eli. “If you’re with them, then you’re just another enemy.”

He held up his hands, still grinning. “Easy now May, we don’t want anyone getting hurt now, do we. Besides, you’ve got Wendy and I’ve got my own bargaining chip.” He stepped fully into the room, dragging someone else behind him.

Pacifica protested with a frightened whimper as she was led inside, Eli’s hand clamped on her arms. She looked terrified and had a cut on her chin. The skin around it looked swollen. Something inside Mason snapped. He grabbed hold of Mabel’s wrist and aimed right at Eli’s head. “GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!”

“Woah!” Mabel cried, shaking her brother’s grip off. “Get a load of Papa Bear over here. I know this isn’t usually my style, but maybe we could do things with a little more tact than this, Dip?”

Mason didn’t take his eyes off Pacifica. “He’s hurt her, there’s no room for argument. These people have hunted us for months, plotted to build a portal. We have to fight back.”

“Or we could talk?” Eli suggested. “How about this, I hand over Pacifica, you hand over Wendy, and we all go home happy?” No-one moved. “Fine, I guess we do this the hard way. What’s a bit of casual conversation over hostage negotiations anyway?” He removed a pistol from beneath his sweatshirt. The twins knew it was the same gun he’d used to despatch Selchen. He wasn’t messing around.

Pacifica stood up, trying to get some small distance from her captor. “Maybe you could start with why you’re in this bunker that just so happens to be right near where Mason proposed to me?”

“Wait, really? Huh.” Eli paused for a moment, stroking his chin as if totally ignorant of the tense negotiations. “I swear, choosing this bunker was just a coincidence.”

“Yeah, like us just ‘bumping into you’ in Russia was a coincidence.”

“He’s right Northwest, we had no idea there was any significance to this location,” Wendy said.

“I’ll thank you to remember my surname is Pines, Red,” Pacifica shot back. “Alright, if that is the case, then go back to the start. Tell us why you did what you did, what this whole Black Hole stuff is about.”

“Fine. Just remember, we’re all on the same side here.” Eli drew harsh looks from the trio. “Ok, so, first I’ll explain Project Nova. See, my role, at least in part, was keeping an eye on you, May.” He looked her in the eyes, which she narrowed considerably. “We’ve been watching you ever since your role in stirring things up during the Hong Kong revolution. You showed an aptitude for staying out of line. Since you knew about the portal, that made you a security risk.”

“So all that time, when we reconnected? It was all a ruse just to get close to me? Was any of it real?” Her emotions were going through a whirlwind. She’d never been sure where stood with Eli before, but now it was a hundred times worse. “Did you ever really care about me at all?”

Eli put his hand on his heart. “Of course I did May. That’s what made me a good choice to watch over you.”

“You mean spy on her?” Mason spat.

“I suppose you could say that. When you two showed up and started talking about dreams and portals, I realised that we needed to stop you stumbling around blindly and causing havoc. So I called in Wendy.”

“You mean you hired a killer to stop us doing whatever ‘evil plan’ we had in mind? Really winning us over, Eli.”

“It’s more complicated than that,” Eli replied, getting visibly frustrated. “We couldn’t let you construct the portal, no matter what.”

“I know the risks. More than anyone.” Mason and his sister were the only people who’d truly seen a portal in action and knew the consequences. “So what, you two are part of some kind of group dedicated to building your own portal or something? You’re one of those fringe cults like the Freemasons or Illuminati or the Council or Ursus?”

“The Society is far more noble than that, Dipper,” Wendy said. “You have to see it through our eyes.”

“Oh, Wendy honey, I’d love to,” Mabel said, dripping with sarcasm. “I’d love to see why our deaths were the better answer, instead of, you know, just talking to us.”

“Then perhaps it’s time you talked to our leader.” Wendy tapped a button on the wrist of her black armour, sending out a signal. One of the metal walls of the computer room slid up. Out of the hidden door came three men in hooded green robes. Two of them stood to one side, allowing the leader to step past.

He pulled down his hood. Beneath was a gaunt face with pale grey skin. He had an x shaped scar across one of his eyes. The man’s bald head was covered in tattoos dividing it into sections that each contained a mental concept, like a classic phrenology map of the skull.

Pacifica looked at the man curiously, but the twins both opened their mouths in shock. They knew this man. Mabel pointed at him with her other arm, keeping her gauntlet trained on Eli. “It’s you! Toot-Toot McBumbersnazzle!”

Despite the tension Pacifica couldn’t help bursting out with laughter. “What kind of a name is that?!”

The bald man scowled at the inappropriate laughter. “A name I was given by an overactive 12-year old’s imagination. But I now remember my true name!”

“Blind Ivan,” Mason stated. “The head of the Society of the Blind Eye! Gonna erase our memories now?” He prepared himself for a fight, already tired from battling Wendy but not prepared to give up so easily.

“My name is Ivan Wexler, yes Mr Pines. But I now go by a new title.” He opened his arms wide as if preaching a sermon. “I am the All-Seeing Ivan! We are a new order, the Society of the _Open_ Eye.”

“Uh, someone mind filling me in?” Pacifica asked, feeling very out to sea. “I’m sensing some history here.”

Mason scratched his chin for a moment. “Ok, here’s what I suggest. We all put our weapons down, no conflict. Me and Mabel will tell Pacifica the history of your sordid little group, then you people can fill _us_ in on what you’ve been up to. Then maybe you can give us a reason to not think you’re as bad as you once were.”

Eli hesitated to release his grip, but Ivan gave a small nod. Pacifica shrugged free and went over to the twins. Once she was safely back with them, Mabel lowered her gauntlet and pushed Wendy over to the other Society members.

“Good,” Mason said. He looked at Wendy. “I hope you know what on earth you’re doing Wendy. I really do.”

* * *

The two groups separated, with the Pines cautiously staying in the corner, worried about more secret doors opening and being overwhelmed. Mason examined the damage to Pacifica’s chin. He wasn’t exactly staying composed. “Doesn’t look like it’ll need stitches. Did he hurt you much, are you alright? Because if he did-”

Pacifica turned his face to stare into his hazel eyes. “Mason, look at me. I’m fine, end of.”

“But-“

“I’m. Fine.” Then she smiled sympathetically. They’d both been through a lot in the last few hours. “So, this _Society_? Old friends of yours?”

“Ooh, I’ll explain this!” Mabel was eager to tell this story. It wasn’t often she had a chance to fill that role, which usually went to Mason with his journal. She started rapid-fire babbling everything she knew about the subject. “Ok, so back in the ancient dinosaur times, like the 80’s or so, there was this secret cult. The Society of the Blind Eye. You know about McGucket’s memory gun from the whole Andromeda incident. Well this Society used to use to gun on anyone in Gravity Falls who had any kind of run in with the supernatural! They’d wipe the memory right out of their heads!”

“Funny, I’ve never heard of them.”

“Who knows, maybe you did,” Mason suggested. “I mean, hypothetically they could have wiped your memory of the encounter.”

That wasn’t something she liked the sound of. The idea of anyone having control over her past like that wasn’t a pleasant one, but Mason had been shaken enough today. She raised her chin imperiously and said, “Yeah right, like that’d ever happen to someone of my social standing.”

“I find it kinda scary too, Paz,” Mabel said seriously, and Pacifica avoided her gaze. She’d seen right through her little deflection. “But you don’t have to worry, we put a stop to them a long time ago. At least, we thought we did.” She looked over to the gathered green robed acolytes still standing in guard of the secret alcove. Ivan, Eli, and Wendy were privately whispering to themselves.

“Yeah, we turned to memory gun back on the Society themselves, so there should have been no-one left to carry on the traditions. But it’s clear that Ivan’s memories have resurfaced somewhat, like Stan’s or McGucket’s.” Mason skimmed through Journal 7, then remembered all his notes about the memory gun would be in one of his older books, most likely Journal 4, stored back on the Stan ‘O War in the drydock they’d secured it at in Mexico.

“So why’d they do all of that?” Pacifica asked. “Why go to all that trouble?”

“They saw it as helping people, in a twisted way. Keeping all the bad memories hidden away, so that the townsfolk could carry on in blissful ignorance.”

“A pretty dumb idea all around,” Mabel said loudly enough so that the Society members could obviously hear. “There’s no memory gun anymore at least. Guess these guys went through a corporate rebranding. Open Eye seems like a very different style.”

Pacifica nodded slowly, then spoke as if in half in a trance. “Yeah, that green eye symbol. It feels… inviting. I think I’ve seen it in my dreams.”

Ivan spoke across the room, projecting his voice so that it filled the tight space of the bunker. “Ah yes, those dreams that are the cause of all this unrest. Pray tell us why you’ve done so much, gone so far, all in service to those nightly portents?”

Pacifica shrugged. “They have the ring of truth. I don’t know. I trust in myself. Enough about me though. It’s time you told us about your order.”

“Very well Mrs Pines. Perhaps when I am done you will see that we are not your enemies”. None of the trio spoke. It was clear you could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Ivan switched on one of the dormant computer consoles. A large screen on the wall flashed the logo of the green eye.

“After our encounter 15 years ago, I travelled about, playing my banjo across the country. It was all I had to cling to you see. You’d erased everything else from my past. My family, my identity, even my own name, gone.” The gaunt faced man stared accusingly at Mason and Mabel. They tried to stay determined under the one-eyed gaze. They knew the old Ivan had done wrong. In their minds he deserved it.

“The banjo was all I had left, so I put everything into my playing. I became quite well renowned. I would have stayed in that state of blissful ignorance, had I not encountered a face from my past one day.” His one functioning eye panned over to stare at Wendy. “Miss Corduroy ended up in the audience at a festival I was playing at. I caught a glimpse of her red hair across the room. Even cut short, that fiery hair lit a spark in my mind. I remembered it from our encounter. She’d been there when I lost my memories.”

He raised his voice. “And she didn’t even notice me, she was on her phone! At first I couldn’t figure out the significance. Yet her image gnawed at me. Why was this stranger nagging at my mind? I thought I was going mad.” 

He closed his eyes in a pained expression, letting Wendy continue the story. “Ivan approached me a few days later. He’d seen me hanging around the festival and worked up the courage. I was pretty terrified seeing him again, gotta be honest. I thought he was out for revenge. But when he saw how much his presence affected me, he was devastated. It scared him that he didn’t know what I had to fear. We talked over coffee after that. He told me all about the things he could partially remember, and I helped him fill the gaps… then we got talking about other things…”

“Other things?” Mason asked. “Like what? Wendy, why did you talk to him in the first place?”

His old friend looked away. He struggled to read her expression. “Dipper… do you ever think the world is wrong?”

“Uh, in what way?” He tried to tiptoe around the issue, scared of what Wendy was about to admit.

“Mabel, you’ve seen it. Inequality, poverty, people living with nothing. After I left Gravity Falls, when I went to Portland, I spent years jumping between jobs. Low-paid, long hours, going from paycheck to paycheck. You guys never called, you never asked how I was doing. Well I wasn’t doing great. I told you Pacifica, I was desperate… so that got me thinking.”

Mason and Mabel’s stomachs clenched. They could guess what she was going to say.

“I’d heard all about your uncle’s portal. I’d seen the chaos that had been unleashed. Hell, we all lived through Weirdmageddon! But I thought – maybe there’s some good that could come from Ford’s idea. _His_ portal might have failed, but surely the idea wasn’t out of the question?”

“But Grunkle Ford made the portal for research, to probe other dimensions,” Mabel reminded her. “What did you think you could get from it?”

Ivan explained. “Think about it. Access to an infinity of dimensions. Tapping into to that kind of cosmic power, even having just a fraction of it… it could provide a limitless supply of clean energy! The whole world would change overnight! Wendy and I discussed this topic long into the night. We came to the conclusion that we should work together, for the betterment of all mankind. To that end, we founded the Society of the Open Eye.”

“Our mission is to seek out ways of improving the lives of everyone,” Eli recited, sounding uncomfortably to the trio’s ears like he was reciting holy scripture. “Once we have the portal technology refined and safe, we plan to spread the knowledge far and wide, to banish ignorance. No longer will the supernatural be forced into the margins, hidden away in arcane journals or abused like with Selchen’s acts in Russia. That’s what we’re after, harmony between all beings.”

“You guys sound like nutjobs!” Pacifica indelicately stated. There was a wall of disapproving faces from all the Society members. “Sorry, but it’s true! You dress in weird cloaks, have secret symbols. If you really wanted to ‘enlighten’ the world, then why don’t you just come forward and tell, like, governments and stuff about the portal and all the strange creatures in Gravity Falls?”

Ivan shook his head. “That would be… unwise. And potentially dangerous. You’d really trust the American government with portal technology?”

“He’s right Pacifica,” Mabel begrudgingly said. “Much as I hate to agree, you can’t just hand out that info willy nilly. It’s nearly destroyed the world by accident already.”

“It’s not enough to just reveal things carelessly,” Ivan said. “These secrets need to be viewed through the correct lens. Here at our Society we train ourselves to see reality as it truly is. You Pines proved with the memory gun and with beings like the Cipher that our perception can be easily mislead. That is why the Black Hole is our truest weapon. Control perception and you control reality. As above, so below.”

“So,” Mason said, putting the pieces together slowly in his head. “In Venice, you were after the same component as Crane and us. Then after that you were trying to prevent us from, I dunno, thougtlessly destroying the world or something apocalyptic like that. I think that makes sense. And in Russia, Eli, you were there after the same parts as us.”

“And investigating Selchen’s connections with the a-mortals, yup.”

“So you guys have nothing to do with the a-mortals? None at all?”

“Goodness no!” Ivan blurted out. “They are our enemies!” Ivan started tapping some buttons on the computer. “These beings, these super-humans who dub themselves ‘a-mortal’, immune to the flow of time, are the antithesis of what we’re after. They too strive to build a portal, though for reasons that remain unseen to us. All we know is that several of them have banded together. They have grown to despise ordinary humans. We don’t know why, but they see themselves as a different kind of being altogether. That makes them highly dangerous to the status quo.”

Ivan finished typing and the screen with the green eye switched over to show a new symbol. Pacifica gasped. “I’ve seen this before!” It was a wheel of 10 symbols. She grasped for forehead and clenched her eyes shut in pain. “Urgh, it’s so familiar!”

Mason reached out to see if she was alright, but she waved him away. Before her eyes she replayed the image of the wheel that she’d witnessed, over the course of many nights. Those same symbols, four of them obscured by red crosses. The pain faded away.

“That’s it. The Zodiac wheel.” Pacifica had seen the wheel before in person, on one of the most terrifying days of her life. When the survivors of Gravity Falls had banded together to take on Bill Cipher. Each symbol in the wheel had corresponded to a specific person, all of whom had gathered there that day. What she remembered most of that day was all the fire, as if the whole of reality was burning to the ground.

Ivan nodded with wide eyes, impressed by her knowledge of the situation. “This image was taken from the files of one Anton Selchen; after he died it was retrieved by Eli. This second image gives some more context.” He pressed a button and a new slide came up. It was the same underlying photo, but with circles drawn around four of the symbols.

Pacifica looked at each one, heart momentarily leaping in her chest before calming again once she saw that the Llama, Pine Tree, and Shooting Star hadn’t been circled. She looked now to see which ones the a-mortal had singled out. The pentagram with the eye, the stitched heart, the Six-fingered hand, and lastly the strange circular fish-like sigil from Stan Pines’ fez.

“They’re targeting the members of the Zodiac.” Mason nodded slowly, comprehending the threat now presented by the a-mortals. “They were trying to build their own portal too, so this is a backup to that plan. I think they probably assume that the Zodiac is somehow standing in the way of their plans. Those must be the symbols they’ve been able to pin down. Huh, makes sense which ones they’ve chosen I suppose, all of them are located in the US, easy to get tracked if they’re closer to home.”

“These aren’t the same ones from my vision.”

“Huh, what did you say Pacifica?”

“In my dreams I saw four crossed out symbols. I can somehow tell that this isn’t a one to one match. I think the pair of glasses was crossed out instead of the heart. Weird.”

“What does all this malarkey actually mean though?!” Mabel asked loudly. This high-concept talk was boring her. She was getting impatient to continue with some kind of forward goal and get away from the danger posed by the hooded freaks gathered in this dark room.

“I have a request for you.” Ivan switched off the screen and put his hands behind his back. “Eli had been working here in the bunker to locate the last known positions of the four identified Zodiac members. We were shortly about to dispatch people to check up on them. Now that you three have heard our story, I’d like to offer the hand of friendship and ask a request: Help Eli and Wendy to find and save these people from the a-mortals. Will you do that? If you refuse, you may carry on your way. We will only warn you against further work towards a portal, but I see it’s clear that the threat of violence won’t dissuade you. Well? What do you say?”

Mason, Mabel, and Pacifica all looked at one another. A silent understanding passed quickly between them. They’d come so far already. After all the trio had been through, could they really turn away now?

* * *

The first of the sun’s rays were hitting the tips of the mountains as they came out through the concrete top of the bunker. They’d spent the whole night in that dark abyss.

“Fresh air.” Pacifica said this with no hint of relief that they were out. She was already set on the new task ahead of them. So much had changed since they’d first descended underground. After being together through thick and thin, the Pines trio were preparing to split up. Each of them had a different task to see to.

Eli and Wendy lead the way out. Their trio had technically expanded to five for the time being, whilst Ivan and his acolytes searched for more information on the a-mortals’ plot. It wasn’t an easy alliance, but for now they were united with a common goal.

Before heading off, Mason called out to Wendy. “Hey. I have one last question. All those times you confronted us, why didn’t you just come forward? Couldn’t you have told us the truth?”

“At first we worried that you were working for the a-mortals, you might have been on their side.” Mason nodded, understanding this, then gestured for her to go on. “After that… look, you three were rogue elements. We couldn’t tell your motivations, and we needed those portal components ourselves. I thought you’d take the hint and give up cause it was too dangerous.”

“And we just stupidly carried on. But if you’d just told us-”

“We all have secrets, Dipper. You’re telling me you wouldn’t keep things from the ones you love? About the strange side of the world for example? Like Stan did?”

He thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. Perhaps I’d lie to protect them. It’s a scary world after all.”

“That’s dumb, Dipper,” Mabel snapped. “I had enough of that when were teens. We kept secrets from Mom and Dad about everything! There were times when one of us holding things back nearly caused disaster!” She shook her head decisively. “I’d never do that to my own children.”

She started stomping along the path, head down and clearly in an upset mood. Mason looked back to Wendy, who just shrugged, then to Pacifica. She took his hand. She’d watched enough of their arguments lately to judge the situation. There was a rough patch coming up.

Mason sighed and began the long trek down the mountain.


	20. The A-mortals

The suburbs on the outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee felt about as uninviting and bland as ranks of massed houses could be. Each building was unfailingly identical to the ones beside it, and each one was a tiny slice of middle America, with well-kept lawns and white picket fences.

To both Wendy and Pacifica it was about as far from an ideal living space as they could imagine. The two girls from Oregon walked up the garden path of one of the anonymous homes.

“Alright Corduroy, enough of the enigmatic shit. You’re not _’the Black Hole’_ anymore,“ Pacifica said dismissively. “Why are we here in bumfuck Tennessee?”

“Like we agreed, we’re searching out members of the Zodiac. This is the current residence of a very old friend of mine.”

“Ugh, first place we go after getting back in the states and it’s this modernised hegemony of identical trashy houses. Oh god, I’m starting to sound like May. Honestly though,” Pacifica panned around the suburb. “It’s so artificial. The old Tennessee might have been a hotbed of rednecks, but at least it’s better than this lifeless place.”

“Relax will you, Pacifica. I know it’s not massive mansions and five-star hotels like you’re used to-“

“Hey, that’s not me anymore!” Pacifica protested vehemently.

“_But_,” Wendy continued, “even this sort of place is one I would have killed to live in back during my rough days.”

“Look, enough with the sob story, let’s just get this over with. Then we can both go back to our separate lives. I should have never agreed to team up with you. I feel like a door-to-door salesman!” 

Pacifica ran the front doorbell. It made a cloying tinkly noise, that they both winced at. Pacifica really pondered about that. After seeing such varied sights around the world, pyramids, mountains, incredible landscapes, diverse ways of life – coming back to such a schmaltzy fake sound was all the more crushing. She was desperately regretting coming here, her heart already aching for more adventure.

The front door of the house swung open. Standing in the hall was a lanky man, roughly their age, with dark black hair. His eyes widened into a mild shock when he saw who’d knocked. “Wendy? You cut you hair.”

“Nice to see you too, Robbie,” she replied with a smirk.

Robbie Valentino was one of the targets in the a-mortals’ Zodiac related schemes. So now they had to make sure he wasn’t under attack. Or if he wasn’t already somehow an agent of theirs.

“What’s with the all-black getup?” Robbie said, gesturing at Wendy’s armour. “Never pegged you for the leather BDSM type.”

“Says you, Mr 50’s homeowner.” She gestured at his clothes. A neat tweed jacket and high slacks, giving him the look of an old professor, who wouldn’t look out of place locked in a dusty archive. Everything was neat and tidy, a far cry from the rebellious emo of Gravity Falls.

“I have to look respectable at my job. Universities turn people away if they don’t look pristine. Though you wouldn’t know anything about that, heh.”

“There’s that bully I used to know.” Wendy sighed. This reunion was going more painfully than she’d anticipated.

Robbie finally noticed his other guest and lazily grunted. “Northwest.” 

Though they’d never interacted much back in the day, she’d known of Robbie regardless. Back then it paid to know all of the goings on in the town, if you wanted to keep on top of the local gossip. 

“Actually, it’s Pines now,” she corrected.

“Wait, _you_ married- ha- you married Dipper Pines!” Pacifica blushed as he broke into laughter. It seemed there was definitely some of the ‘old Robbie’ left under that measured exterior after all.

“Like you’ve done much better in your life,” Pacifica shot back. She knew how to dish it out as well as take insults. “You’re not exactly living in the lap of luxury.”

“I was lucky to get this place. Old Man McG used some of his influence. He was fond of helping out the townsfolk with programmes like that. You try raising a family in this economy without help!”

“Family?” Wendy asked. Robbie suddenly started blushing, clashing with how Pacifica had always pictured him.

“Dad? Who is it?”

Pacifica and Wendy could barely contain themselves a young boy of 7 or 8 years old came into the hallway. He was the spitting image of his father, rendered in miniature form. His skin was slightly darker, taking after his mother.

“Not now, Robert Junior,” Robbie hissed under his breath.

“Robert- this is priceless!” Wendy leant on the doorframe as she laughed.

Pacifica raised her chin and looked down at Robbie smugly. “Wow, you really have been totally domesticated. Married with a kid, you!”

“Oh man, I remember when you were the punk kid who recorded crappy love songs on CD!” Wendy pointed a mocking finger at him. “You changed dude.”

Robbie crossed his arms. “Well of course Wendy. We’re 30 years old now, we’re not children anymore. Time to start taking life seriously.” There was a buzz from his tweed jacket. He pulled out a phone and checked the caller. “That’s Tambreth.” 

Wendy supressed another chuckle, but Robbie pushed past the two women on his doorstep. “I have to go; I’m meeting her at the library later. I’m doing a bit of weekend work then we’re going for coffee. You know, normal things, not like whatever you weirdos probably get up to in your spare time.” He gave a particularly pointed glance at Pacifica, likely associating her with all the crazy adventuring her husband was known for. He glanced back at his son before leaving. “Stay safe Robert.” Then he mumbled out, “I love you,” and headed away.

Pacifica and Wendy stood on the porch, unsure of how to proceed. Their target was seemingly indifferent to speaking to them and there was no sign of any enemy interference.

Eventually Wendy broke the silence. “Wanna go grab a coffee?” At that moment Pacifica wanted nothing less than to spend any more time with the redhead. But with no other options, she resigned herself to enduring the rest of the day in her presence. She hoped that Mason was having a better time in Florida.

* * *

“So you see, everything in the universe is like a jellybean – made of the same basic materials, varied in colour and material, but all more or less conforming to one basic pattern.”

“Uh huh.”

“But every now and then, by chance, a bean comes out deformed… odd… weird. You and I are like these beans Dipper, we are unique! Ha, reminds me of a time I was exploring Dimension 715, where nobody knew what the word ‘sponge’ meant, but everything else was identical to our world. Or the time I fought and tamed the Furbire beast of Dandelo IV. See he was feasting on the local villagers, so I had to use my quick wits to devise an alternative diet. That was quite a pickle I can tell you, particularly when I introduced the beast to eating actual pickles. Of course, all that was before me and Stan… my brother…”

“Ford? Ford?”

“Oh, sorry… I forgot where I was… Stan… where are you?! Where is he!?”

“It’s ok, I’m here, you don’t have to worry.”

“Eh? Dipper my boy, is that you?”

“I’m here, Grunkle Stanford. I’ve always been here.”

“Ah, good to see you my lad. Still keeping up the quest for knowledge, I hope? Striving for excellence? That’s my boy!”

“Ford, do you remember what I asked you before? About whether you’d had any strange visitors? No? Nothing? Can you even hear me, in the present? Please, Grunkle Ford, see me, I’m here.”

“…You know, I have a theory. About the law of weirdness magnetism. You see, everything in the universe is like a jellybean…”

When Mason emerged from the rest home, Eli saw he was visibly haggard from the experience. He’d wanted to visit his uncle alone, but it had taken a toll on him. It wasn’t easy facing what was left of the man he’d once idolised so much.

“You alright man?” Eli put a hand on Mason’s shoulder, a small sign to show he could trust him.

Mason slowly nodded. “Yeah, I’m alright. Jesus, that was tough though. Seeing him like that, a shell of who he once was… he’s never been the same since Stan died.” He wasn’t even sure whether the stories he’d been rambling about were half-remembered tales from his past or just jumbled misfiring memories cobbled together in his pitiful state.

“Maybe there’s something in your journal that can help?”

“It’s Alzheimer’s, Eli, not something you can just wave a magic wand to get rid of!” He realised he was raising his voice, so tried to calm down. “Not every problem has a solution. I learnt that the hard way when me and Paz tried to… well it doesn’t matter. The point is, no, I can’t fix my Grunkle. And that hurts me more that you can know. Those a-mortals wouldn’t see it, but sometimes death can be a mercy.”

Eli shook his head. “It’s such a shame. Stanford Pines was so far ahead of his time. If he could help us with his insight, we’d have our portal built overnight!”

“Always thinking about your endgame,” Mason scoffed. “I can tell you now, you had the whole layout of your portal all wrong, totally upside down. That’s what comes from leaping into something, heh… blindly.”

Eli crossed his arms. He’d chosen to take up this particular assignment, to go with Mason to check up on his Uncle, because he wanted to try and help him see his side of the argument. Mason had a keen intelligence much like his uncle’s, something the Society admired.

“You don’t like us much yet, do you. Me, Ivan, Wendy, all the others: We’re trying to help people. Right now your uncle is stuck in this crummy retirement home, out of his mind and wasting away! Think of what things could be like with the utopia the portal could bring.”

“Wow, they really did a number on you with their brainwashing.” Eli frowned, clearly disappointed in Mason’s lack of faith. “Your promised ‘new world’ is a pipe dream. I’ve seen this kind of ambition before and it always, without fail, leads to ruin.”

“But don’t you see our mission is pure? We only want to make the world a better place.”

“So do the a-mortals, probably. I think your order is misguided. Ford realised that making the portal was a mistake. It’s not gonna fix the world overnight. I’m not like Mabel, I don’t believe in that sort of thing. And your methods leave a lot to be desired. Shoot first and ask questions later, I mean really?”

“That was… regrettable-“

“Understatement of the year-“

“-but we’re allies now. We can find a way to work together, I know it. You and I were friends once too, back in school. I wasn’t always just Mabel’s hanger-on.”

“I guess we were.” Mason stared at his feet. Eli was just one more connection he’d failed to keep up with. He thought back to the school projects they’d collaborated on, the shared after-school clubs they’d attended. It felt like a long time ago, a memory of a different life. “That reminds me, I never asked. How did you get swept up in all this secret society business?

“I was recruited cause I used to be close with May.” Eli blushed. “It was basically all thanks to that little fling we had after prom. You know what your sister’s like; she was done with me and onto the next boy or girl in no time. But I was drifting around...”

“Yeah, that sounds like you alright.”

“See, we haven’t totally lost touch. You can still remember what I used to be like at least. Anyway, I was going from job to job, totally bored out of my skull. When one day, out of the blue, a girl with red hair showed up at the warehouse where I’m working. She asks if I know May Pines, and I say, ‘what’s it to you’?”

“Let me guess, then she spun you a tale of supernatural triangles and space portals.”

“Right! I thought she was totally crazy, some college girl from Portland high off her rocks. Then she showed me things. First she showed up in alley after dark in the Black Hole armour, terrified the life outta me. Once she’d convinced me that she meant business she introduced to me to some cryptids, eyebats, manotaurs, mer-people. Enough to convince me her words were the truth.”

“And after that you signed up to spy on my sister?” He locked a penetrating gaze on Eli, who looked very guilty under the glare.

“Well, when you put it like that it does sound pretty bad. The Society wanted to make sure she didn’t do something crazy like try to make her own to portal to, I dunno, take down the government or something.”

“Does that really sound like Mabel to you? She might be a lot of things, but she knows as well as I do how dangerous the portal was.”

“Do you think she still hates me?” Mason was taken aback by this question. It was strangely honest and vulnerable in a way he hadn’t seen Eli before. He sounded genuinely sad that he’d upset Mabel. Eli noticed the hesitation and started rambling. “I mean, I know I did wrong by her, I admit that. But the way she barely even looked at me before she went off on her mission. It hurt, and I don’t know how I'm s'posed to react and I’m starting to feel weird and-“

Mason held up his hand for Eli to stop. “Look, I get it man. I understand, really. I’m sure Pacifica will eventually come around too. But Mabel… you hurt her, Eli. She’s not going to forgive you overnight.”

“Just like you were hurt by Wendy… I guess the Society can be rather uncaring at times. How about you and Mabel? You seemed kinda distant when she left too.”

Mason grimaced. It was true that Mabel had left rather suddenly. He’d wanted to say more at their parting after all they’d gone through on the world tour but had missed his chance. “I’m not sure. I thought we were getting closer, but now with all the betrayals, and being split apart again… I dunno… Time will tell. Anyway, speaking of time we’re overdue on our mission report.”

Eli pulled out and passed him a small stubby device with a speaker grille. This was a modified miniature walkie-talkie the Society had developed. It would ensure that the signal couldn’t be tracked. Mason activated the device and spoke into the speaker.

“Elise, this is Tyrone calling, come in Elise.” 

After a moment he heard a light chuckle from the other end of the line. “Hi there… _Tyrone_.”There was a quiet, amused mumble right afterwards. “Dummy.”

“Any luck with your mission yet?”

“Nah, it’s pretty much a bust. We found the Heart, but no sign of anything untoward so far. What about you, how’s old Sixer since we last visited?”

“He’s the exact same as when we dumped him here 5 years ago… it’s tough Paz. Uh, I mean Elise.”

“You’d make an awful spy, you know that? What’s your suggestion then? We just wait around and see what happens?”

“It’s all we can do for now. Don’t worry, after we make sure things are safe with the Zodiac we can get right back to the original mission – sorting out your dreams. Love you Elise, gotta go now.”

“Love you too… _Tyrone_.” She said the name in the same amused tone, then the line clicked off. Mason passed the phone back to Eli, then resigned himself to a long wait. Those a-mortals had as much time as they wanted to see to their plans, he supposed.

* * *

Ordering coffee was a weird experience for Pacifica. Firstly there was the odd sensation of paying with normal US dollars again. Her pockets were filled with Yen and Australian dollars after their most recent trips. That something so familiar could feel so unusual was a testament to how long they’d been away on the journey.

Secondly, the whole process felt incredibly mundane. She wasn’t exploring a new country, or recovering lost treasure, or fighting off a psychopathic assassin.

In fact she was about to try and partake in casual conversation with said assassin. How things had changed. She collected the drinks and carried them over to Wendy’s table. It was another minor aggrievement against the redhead that she’d had to order the drinks. Pacifica was used to having other people do that for her.

“Happy now, Wendy? We can talk over these drinks my hard-earned money bought us.” She laid the paper cup down hard in front of Wendy, hoping to put her in her place.

Instead, Pacifica was confused when Wendy simply smiled that genial smile. How was it she could always stay so cool and collected? Even Mabel’s largely endless positivity came out in a sort of manic explosion, rather than Wendy’s measured calmness.

“Thanks Pacifica. I would have got them myself, but money’s still kinda tight.”

“Oh.” Pacifica suddenly felt mildly ashamed at herself. She’d forgotten how tough Wendy’s life had been and thought only about herself. She sat down and tried to correct this. “So, I didn’t know about McGucket’s charitable work.”

“Mmhmm,” Wendy said over a sip of coffee. “That’s the McGucket scholarship, he set it up to help people in dire straits. Like how he used to be, living in the dump. I would’ve tried taking it up, but I didn’t think college was for me.”

“I never knew he’d done that.”

“There’s a lot about Gravity Falls you didn’t know about after you left.” Wendy’s tone became tinged with a slight anger. “After the twins split up and you guys went your separate ways, that was it. You all wanted nothing to do with the town. You and Dipper had your new careers, Mabel was going all over the place. No time for Gravity Falls or the people you’d known there.”

“That’s not true. Not entirely.” Wendy raised an eyebrow at Pacifica’s response. “It was my home too, even if I hate so much of my childhood looking back. The twins obviously missed it, they used to _live_ for their summers there. Mason always said he wanted to go back eventually... when the children were grown..." She felt the passion of the debate drain away like the coffee Wendy was currently drinking.

Wendy thought for a moment. "So you’ll go back then. Someday."

Pacifica quietly sipped at her coffee. She didn’t like how this girl was worming her way inside and making her doubt herself. She decided that it was time for some payback.

“How does it feel then Wendy, knowing that you’ve done the same to the twins now? I mean, they trusted you, thought you were their friend. Then you turned out to be a murderous liar. Talk about a pot calling the kettle black.”

“Hey, now that’s not-“

“No, you listen to me Red, since you’re the person who’s been practically giving me early grey hairs from stress these past months. The twins aren't gonna forgive you anytime soon. They look out for each other, and if they get it in mind that someone's their enemy, it takes a lot to get them to back down. It happened with Gideon Gleeful and it happened with... with me."

She regretted that last statement, since Wendy started to smile wryly again, seeing the flaw in the argument. “Ugh, don’t give me that look, you smug, condescending-“

“What’s the matter, Pacifica? Annoyed that someone with no money can still be happier than you?”

“No, it’s just- how do you do it? How do you always stay so positive? And for the record, I haven’t cared about money in years, so you can just forget about all that, ok?”

“Sure sure, whatever. I stay positive cause I have hope. Hope like Mabel, that the world can be a little brighter if we all work together.”

“Isn’t that a little hypocritical? You’re the Black Hole after all, you nearly killed us all multiple times! Wait, it was _you_ the whole time right? No-one else wore the suit? India, Istanbul, even Venice?”

“Dipper did look pretty dapper in that tux you dragged him out in.”

“Oh my lord…” Pacifica stared into her coffee, avoiding the redhead’s piercing gaze. Then she thought of a follow-up question. “Have you ever killed anyone? Because Eli did back in Russia. I don’t think I want any part of that kind of thing, thank you.”

Wendy frowned for the first time in their conversation. Pacifica didn’t think she looked like a killer now the Black Hole mask had come off. “No, I haven’t killed anyone. Not yet at least. I’ve trained for it though.”

“Huh.” Pacifica wasn’t sure how to take that information. Much like Mabel’s clear aptitude with guns, this troubled her. She glanced down at the armour Wendy wore, which had drawn a few eyes before they’d sat down. “How’s it work then? The invisibility stuff? Cause I can tell you Mason’s been dying to know for months. Forget my dreams, most of his theories have been about the armour. ‘Hey Paz, maybe it’s a nylon-kevlar-adamantium alloy’, ‘hey Paz, maybe it’s got kinetic dampeners as well as the projectors’, ‘hey Paz, do you think with your parents money we could build our own Black Hole suit’.”

“Ha, I wish _I_ knew honestly. You think a girl who barely scraped through high school knows how a density field projector works?”

Pacifica couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at the absurdity of it. She saw Wendy’s triumphant look. “Don’t think you’ve won me over yet Red. You’ve still got a long way to go before we can be considered ‘friends’”

“Sure thing… Princess.” Pacifica blushed hard and was about to give a comeback when Wendy’s wrist communicator beeped. “Hmm, looks like an unusual energy trace nearby. Might need to do a proper check.” She tapped a button and a compartment on the side of her armoured leg slid open like a finely crafted puzzle piece.

“Do you know how hard it is to find expensive clothes with decent pockets?” Pacifica asked, jealously regarding the suit’s storage space. Wendy brought out a small device not unlike Mason’s homemade energy scanner and set it to do a sweep of the local area.

“This’ll let us know if there’s any more spikes. If the a-mortals are up to something nearby, we’ll soon know.”

Pacifica watched the scanner spinning like a radar signal over the map of the town. Instinctively she clutched her pendant and started playing with it. She was getting uneasy feelings from the thought of meeting another a-mortal again.

“Aright, you’ve told us about your Society. Now tell me about your enemies. The a-mortals. Like, what do they want that you’re so against?”

“Where to start? Well, they can live forever. At least, until you kill them.”

“Talk about an obvious statement.” Wendy was about to say more, but Pacifica had the satisfaction of cutting her off. “I know what you mean though. I’ve met enough of those jerks to know their raison d’etre.”

“They like to think they’re a cut above the rest of us ‘mere mortals’. Arrogant bastards. They’re nothing special really. In fact… well, how would you feel if you knew you had time to do whatever you wanted?”

Pacifica shrugged. “I don’t know. You could do a lot of things. Time is money after all.”

Sagely nodding as if Pacifica had made a profound statement, Wendy continued. “They have all the time in the world. You’d think that would satisfy them, but instead we’ve largely observed the opposite effect.” Pacifica leant forwards, getting invested in Wendy’s words. “They have something, life, which to us is a fleeting thing. So they cling to it with a desperate zeal. Yet they know that even the lengthy time they do have is impermanent. Even the sun will burn out eventually. No problem to us, but it’s a dangerous idea for someone who might live that long. That paralyses them with fear. They have far more to lose from dying that you or me.”

“I think I get it. Like if you were a millionaire, dying would cost you more than if you were poor. No offence.” Pacifica thought back to Hetepheres, the Egyptian a-mortal she’d met, and her ‘sanctuary’ in the Bent Pyramid. “So the a-mortals aren’t acting of some grab for power, they’re basically just cowards? But they seem so… epic. That sounds dumb when I say it out loud.”

Wendy emphatically shook her head. “No, I totally get it. Some of the individuals we know of have been around almost as long as human society. If not longer. Ivan was working on a theory. A lot of cultures around the world have very similar myths and legends. The recurring cosmic egg mythos, serpents being involved across multiple belief systems, beings who could stave off death indefinitely…”

Pacifica knew what she was talking about. Crossing the world had given her an insight into lots of disparate cultures. It was true that many of them displayed uncanny similarities. “What’s your point then?”

“What if they weren’t independent coincidences? Most historians say that it’s ‘convergent evolution’, that we’re all hardwired with similar concepts and ideas. But what if all those recurring myths didn’t spread because they were universal truths, but because they were being deliberately spread? By the a-mortals!”

It was too much for Pacifica to take in. “You’ve lost me Red. These old geezers aren’t some terrible force of nature. They can die as easily as anyone else. The way you put it, they’re just cranky that they can’t keep hold of their toys forever. We can take them.”

“That’s the Pacifica I know from the old days. You don’t let anyone boss you around. That’s something we’re gonna need if we have to fight the a-mortals. Wait, hold on.” Wendy’s scanner device was beeping loudly now. Pacifica saw a lot of annoyed patrons of the coffee shop turning their way. “Oh dear.”

“What does that mean?”

“There’s a big magical energy pulse. It looks like it’s coming from the university.”

Pacifica pushed back her chair and shot up. “That’s where Valentino said he was working!”

“Of course, we’ve got to get to the library fast!” Wendy tucked the scanner back into its compartment, then retrieved a stubby pistol from the matching compartment on her other leg. She made to leave, but Pacifica had halted.

“Wait a minute, did you say library?”

“Yeah. So what?”

“I’ve met an a-mortal who has a particular power over a certain kind of inanimate object. What else do you find in a library but a lot of paper?”

* * *

The University of Knoxville’s library was a modern blocky building. Nevertheless, the interior had been lavishly decorated in wood panelling, made to look like it was something out of Oxford or Cambridge. It was another beneficiary of McGucket’s wealth spreading to his home state.

When Wendy and Pacifica arrived at the library however, it was in chaos. People streamed out from every available entrance, running for their lives. They’d definitely come to the right place.

Wendy slid the blank Black Hole mask over her head. She meant business. “Fill me in, what are we dealing with?”

“It’s probably Hetepheres, she’s from Egypt, Old Kingdom. I guess she’s ‘Chartakinetic’, she can possess stuff like paper, parchment, papyrus-“

“All Ps, got it.”

“I’m being serious Wendy! I’d say fire is probably her biggest weakness. Burn down the source of the paper and she’ll have nothing to possess. But be careful,” she added, “we don’t wanna burn down the whole library, it’s filled with wood panelling!”

Wendy gave a curt nod. Then Pacifica watched up close for the first time as she turned fully invisible. She couldn’t stifle the curiosity at seeing her fold the light around the black armour and completely disappear.

Pacifica strode over to the library door and pushed them open hard. She wasn’t going to let Wendy think she was afraid of confronting the a-mortals. She had to duck almost instantly when a heavy hardback went flying past her head.

Inside the library it was even more chaotic than the panic outside. Pages torn from the books swirled around on currents of air. Many of the bookshelves were tipped over to form barricades, and the books themselves were being thrown around in random directions. Right at the centre of the library was Robbie, ensnared in a web of paper that coiled around him and held him aloft.

“Help! Oh please god help me!” he whined in a high-pitched scream. “Northwest! Get me down! Please!” Pacifica started clambering over the fallen shelves to reach him. “Come on, save me faster!”

“It’s Pines,” she mumbled under her breath. “I’m going as fast as I can, you ungrateful jerk! Or would you prefer I just leave you?” She started turning away.

“No no! Forget I said anything!” Hearing Robbie’s desperate cries gave Pacifica an immense feeling of satisfaction. “Come on, we’re friends right? Old Gravity Falls buddies? Zodiac partners? Just get me out of this- uff.” Strands of paper wrapped around Robbie’s mouth, gagging him and ceasing his petulant whines.

“No one’s leaving yet. It looks like we’ve got a special visitor.” Pacifica looked up to see a vast blanket of paper merged together like a swirling cone, with someone standing on a platform on top. Hetepheres smiled down at her. “And what a special visitor it is, my dear Pacifica!”

“Hetepheres. How awful to see you too.” She tried to edge forwards without making it obvious. Wondering when Wendy was going to show up, she figured that keeping the a-mortal occupied couldn’t hurt. “I hope I don’t catch you snooping in my diary this time.”

Hetepheres’ lips moved upwards almost imperceptibly. “Perish the thought my dear. We’re all friends, are we not.” She floated over and got uncomfortably close to the trapped Robbie. “Mr Valentino here has such a big Heart, we thought we’d drop by and borrow some of his love. Isn’t that right?” She stared hard at Robbie, who nodded exaggeratedly. “So, we’ll just be taking him. My offer still stands if you want to come with us too.”

Pacifica sneered at the a-mortal. “Like I’d ever join you. I know what you think of ‘mere mortals’.”

“But you could be elevated to the highest position! A true equal among us.” Hetepheres’ pleading sounded genuine. Was that all these ancient beings really wanted? More friends to share in their lonely lives? “This time your other friends aren’t here, the twins. Would you really throw it all away for this pathetic speck?” Robbie squirmed as Hetepheres ran a hand down his cheek. 

“That’s enough! Pacifica stood tall despite the flurry of paper. She might not be able to fight her magic powers, but she certainly wasn’t going to let this woman win in their debate. “Let Valentino go.” She thought about how best to defuse the situation. Looking back over the last few days, she came up with something. “We don’t have to be enemies. I know if we just talk, we can find common ground.”

“What can someone like you know of the loss I fear? I have the potential to stave off death, yet the world is a constant danger.”

“Believe me, I can understand more than most. I used to be rich - very rich. I lost that wealth. So I can relate to your a-mortal anxiety. Everything ends, Hetepheres. Even you. But you don’t have to be so afraid of that. Sometimes things have to end for new things to get started.”

Hetepheres’ lips parted slightly. Pacifica tried to read her intentions. She seemed almost swayed by her argument. Pacifica also noticed the large red disc she wore as a headdress. Only now did she realise that it was a representation of the sun. That same fear of the end displayed proudly.

Pacifica opened her arms wide to try and show that she had nothing to hide. For a brief fraction the Egyptian looked like she was about to release Robbie. Then her lip set in a resolute line. Pacifica saw strands of pages start to snake towards her from both sides.

At that instant Hetepheres jerked forwards and fell off her floating column. Wendy merged out of the air and crouched on the hovering platform. She pulled out her jagged sword. In one clean swipe she cut half of the paper connecting Robbie to the walls, causing him to flop over to one side.

Wendy fired a line from her cable launcher, hooking onto a large chandelier. Pacifica expected her to go flying across the room like Mabel always did, but instead she yanked hard on the rope, attempting to bring down the heavy chandelier. She realised it was right above where Hetepheres was lying.

Immediately Pacifica leapt up, grabbing the edge of the platform and causing Wendy to yank the line prematurely. The chandelier clattered to the ground, missing Hetepheres by inches. If it had fallen on her she’d have died like anyone else.

Wendy furiously turned on Pacifica. “What do you think you’re doing!?” Pacifica was briefly chilled, since she had her voice modulator switched on. That deep artificial Black Hole voice had given her many sleepless nights over the last few months.

“We can’t just murder her in cold blood! Besides, it might be useful having one of them as a prisoner. Go tie her up, I’ll get Valentino.” She couldn’t read Wendy with the mask obscuring her face, but the armoured redhead nodded and hopped down. Hetepheres was still stunned.

Pacifica turned to Robbie but was shocked to see he’d been dragged onto an upper floor overlooking the library. The bookshelves acted like a ladder, so she was able to find enough handholds to climb up to him.

Tearing the wrappings away, she heard Robbie cry out, still muffled. His eyes were filled with fear. Pacifica turned quickly to see who’d pulled him up here. Smugly staring at her with arms crossed, Gabriel Cane approached slowly. “Mrs Pines, such a pleasure to meet yet again. Though I think the time for casual conversation is over.”

He lunged out with a fist that Pacifica had to hasten to block with her forearm. More punches came and Pacifica had to try and summon the few basic martial arts moves she knew from scattered lessons Mabel had given her over a decade ago. She also had to move her feet carefully so as to avoid tripping over Robbie.

One advantage she had was that Crane didn’t seem to have any magical powers. Like Selchen, he was just incredibly old. It was more than that though, as Crane proved to be an old man in a young man’s body, with slow reflexes. Even if he’d once trained to fight, he clearly hadn’t kept up any kind of regime and the skills had atrophied.

Pacifica pushed back, deflecting his blows and even getting in a few jabs of her own that struck the arms dealer’s overly pristine jawline. “This is payback for Russia!”

The a-mortal seemed too pre-occupied to shoot back with any kind of retort. He glanced down to Hetepheres. Wendy had her wrapped up in some of the same paper she’d tried to use on Pacifica. He saw that this wasn’t ending in their favour. “Defend the Heart all you will girl, but you will not stand in our way.”

“How come you’re interested in Valentino now? You didn’t care when you had me and Mason, aren’t we Zodiac members too?”

“You obviously know nothing! You’re not ripe anymore!” He made it sound like they trying to _harvest_ Robbie or something.

“What about Ford Pines?” She asked while dodging low to avoid one of Crane’s wide sweeps.

“That broken old man? He’s nothing. The Zodiac is all about the power of symbols. His power has all run out. As has my time!”

Pacifica tried to make a knockout blow on the centre of his face, but Crane dived off the balcony. He knocked into Wendy, then ran over to Hetepheres. He took her up into a bridal carry, then with a free hand dropped a small item.

“Farewell mortals. See you on the other side. If you ever manage to hear the calling.”

A burst of smoke erupted around him. Pacifica could already tell the two a-mortals were gone by the sudden calm that came over the room. Hetepheres and her possession power was gone. When the smoke cleared, she saw Wendy taking off her helmet down below. She didn’t look happy.

A frantic mumbling reminded her that she wasn’t alone on the balcony. She tore enough paper away for Robbie to finally break free. He gasped for air like a drowning man. “Oh my god, I thought I was gonna die!”

“Get over yourself drama queen.”

Wendy climbed up and held out a hand. Robbie hesitated for a moment, then decided that they’d saved him, so deserved some level of respect. Back on his feet, he rubbed his neck and gave a begrudging thanks to the two of them.

Wendy had some more news to break though. “I’m sorry Robbie, but you and your family are going have to go under our protection for the time being. It’s not safe to be out in the open anymore.” He wanted to protest, then saw the destruction that had been wrought around the library. “We have a protection scheme. Our people will look after you, like we already do for Soos and the Falls. I know it’s a lot to take. Head home, get some rest. We’ll contact you soon with details.”

Defeated, Robbie quietly slinked away without another word. All the fire had gone out of him. Pacifica, not fond of Wendy’s cold tone, confronted her. “Alright, spill the beans Red. Crane talked about a ‘calling’. Something’s not right here and you know it.”

Wendy sighed. “Well, I obviously can’t hide anything from you. There is something more to why we’re building the portal, not just our original plan to use it to help people. A few months we detected a signal, out beyond the borders of normal science. It was barely a glimmer, just the faintest trace of something.”

Pacifica knew that feeling. Her dreams had often felt like messages from ‘somewhere’ she couldn’t comprehend. Bokamoso Potgieter had felt it too, as had the a-mortals seemingly. “So it’s not enough just to build a portal. We need to travel through it too.”

“Maybe. Or maybe that’s what the a-mortals want. We don’t know.”

“At least we’re done here. This Zodiac mission is over. With Robbie safe it seems they don’t have any other targets.” Pacifica pulled out the communicator and rang. “Tryone, we’re calling this mission off. The a-mortals aren’t interested in your target. Oh, and we’re gonna have to call Gemini too. There’s absolutely no way the a-mortals will be after her target.”


	21. The Forgotten

Mabel rode her motorbike across the endless open deserts of Texas. It was her first time being alone after so many months travelling together with the others. She’d expected the open air and solitude to give her the usual sense of freedom. Instead it just felt lonely. She was a solitary traveller once again.

Still, after weeks of cramped buses and trains, or painfully long treks on foot, having nothing but wide countryside to zoom past was something of a relief. The sunset light gave the desert a vibrant feel. This was the time of day for riding fast and not caring.

The bike chugged along noisily as she felt the wind whip through her hair. It was a retro model. Despite having an electrical solar powered engine, outwardly it looked like a classic 50's Harley, with the accurate engine sounds to go along with it. It had drawn envious eyes at the last roadside diner she’d stopped at.

After haggling with the waitress there for a vegetarian option, she’d managed to get directions to her target. The last sighting had been a few miles away, across the desert and far from the main highways.

Mabel pulled the bike to a stop, kicked out the stand, and took in the theatre. It was an old 20’s era wooden building, standing alone out here in the middle of nowhere. There’d once been a thriving town around this place, but all the business had dried up. This theatre had survived until very recently though.

Looking at it now though, Mabel could see why it had been abandoned. The front balcony slumped downwards and most of the wood was warped. It was like the building had been sat on, awkwardly bending where the internal supports had collapsed. It was a good thing she’d chosen to go on this mission. The others never would have been able to navigate the crumbling structure.

She on the other hand was a natural at urban exploration. Training for years in parkour, her body’s natural reflexes could alert her to any sudden dangers in a risky environment such as this. Add to that her skill with the grappling hook, and there were few insurmountable places she couldn’t traverse.

A beam blocked the main entrance. Using every ounce of strength she had, she hefted the beam up and kicked away any blockage beneath. Loosening her grip, she let go of the beam and slid under before it crashed back down. Panting slightly from the speed of her action, she tried to crawl forwards to a more open space. She was thankful that was still wearing her biking gloves, as the chance of getting splinters was incredibly high.

She had to push through to an open space. She knew that the main stage would likely be the freest of debris, that open area would be less tightly packed. The dry smell of wood chips was beginning to overwhelm her. This place had collapsed and remained in stasis, not rotting or moulding away. Like the a-mortals she was now fighting against, this place was a relic that refused to move on.

She finally pushed out into an opening. She gratefully stretched her legs as she was once again able to stand upright. While the balcony seats had all collapsed, most of the stalls in the middle of the theatre seemed to have survived intact. A massive wooden column was lying across the central stage, which was broken in two.

Thankful of a moment of quiet, Mabel checked the communicator the Society had provided. No signal, big surprise. All the debris was blocking her lifeline with the outside. But at this moment she wasn’t sad to see that. A lack of communication was just what she wanted right now.

Though she wouldn’t admit it to the others, she had a second, more personal reason for choosing to go this mission alone. She found a decent enough chair in the stalls and sat down. Even with the long ride here she hadn’t been able to get her thoughts in order properly. She needed time to think.

It was something she’d done ever since she was a kid. Often instead of directly confronting the source of a problem she’d just wrap herself up in sweater town and hide away. 

After the dual betrayal of both Eli and Wendy she felt all shaken up inside. She didn’t want anyone else around while she tried to process what it meant, for her, for her brother and Pacifica, and for their mission in general.

It was all the lying that hurt most. Wendy had been one of her oldest friends, and Eli… he’d been someone she’d even dared to think could be so much more. Now she didn’t know what to believe. When people that close to her could reveal themselves as false there was no ground for her to stand on. For once she was seriously considering Mason’s ‘Trust no one’ ethic, a stark reversal from her usual stance.

It troubled her too how it made her re-evaluate her recent escapades with Mason. They’d all gone through a lot as a trio, re-forging the broken bonds that she’d thought were gone forever. Now she wasn’t sure whether that had even been the case. Had her brother really started coming around, or was it a façade? Would they end up breaking apart worse than before? It wouldn’t be the first time, she thought, remembering Ford’s offered apprenticeship, or the events with the Ursus eleven years prior.

At least she still felt like she could still trust in Pacifica. She had a level head on her at all times. If she was offended by anything she’d make it known, no beating around the bush or subterfuge. That wasn’t her style. It was all or nothing. So Mabel could believe that her personality wasn’t a front. The last time she’d acted like that was to hide her true self from her parents, and Mabel knew she never wanted to relive that kind of experience again.

Mabel still felt unsatisfied. She wasn’t getting any closer to resolving her feelings. It always felt like she was one step away from understanding, like she kept getting distracted from properly focusing. Or maybe, she ruefully though, she was going about it all wrong. 

She had a choice right now. Option 1: Continue helping Mason and Pacifica to construct the portal with the aid of the Society. This still left too many unanswered questions for her to truly embrace. She didn’t like Ivan, even with his new goal, and why Pacifica’s dreams needed them to make their portal was still a big question mark.

That left option 2: Get back on the motorbike and drive. Drive, drive, drive, far away. She could leave all this behind again, return to her moral crusading. The world would still keep on turning. Maybe Mason and Pacifica wouldn’t even miss her. The word ‘third wheel’ had been something she hadn’t wanted to think about, even as far back as when the two of them had first started dating.

Then she mentally kicked herself. Was she really considering deliberately doing the very thing Mason had done, leaving her behind for five years? She kicked idly out at the dust and wood. This was why she needed more time alone to think. She didn’t want to make any rash decisions.

Her silence wasn’t to last, however. The hairs on the back of her neck pricked up at a slight chill. Paying attention to even the smallest changes in temperature could be vital when dealing with the supernatural.

Unlike searching for a portal part, which had a clear, defined goal, or even their recent magical encounters, driven by a sort of manic hope for answers about the portal, her current mission was much more freeform. Nevertheless, she felt she was finally onto something.

If the cold did signal something beyond normal comprehension, then she was gonna have to coax it out. Unlike Mason she wouldn’t rely on any pointless electronic scanner, which was prone to incredible inaccuracy. Instead, she’d rely on her own abilities.

She pulled Journal 7 out of her jacket. Mason wouldn’t be needing it on his mission, so Mabel had borrowed it for the time being. Already its filled pages made her smile. That he’d returned so eagerly to working on the book again assuaged some of her doubts about her brother’s sincerity at least.

She turned to one of the many pages taken up with incantations they’d learnt from Bokamoso Potgieter. Squinting through the dark down at the page, she regretted not bringing her glasses. At least her back-and-forth texting with Bokamoso had helped ensure that she was suitably practiced in the spell she was about to apply. This one used a classic technique to perform.

She held the journal aloft in one hand, cleared her throat, then spoke loudly to fill the theatre’s space. “ECNELIS! Snoissergsnart ruoy rof esnepmocer yap lla lliw uoy! Traeh eht morf gnikaeps ma I.”

She coughed up the last word, then frowned. Something about those words felt familiar. Like she’d heard someone say them to her before, a long time ago. She looked over the page again, checking over the transcript. The words had shifted now, becoming unreadable. “Great, that’s magic for you. Untrustworthy.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I always trusted greatly in the words those journals.” Mabel knew that southern drawl. She spun around. A pale, ghostly apparition was moving slowly towards her. He wore a hoodie, pale blue, much like the misty edges of his tubby form. His striking white hair was combed up into a dramatic bouffant.

Mabel’s lips curled up into a grin. She’d found her target. “It’s been a long time, Gideon.”

* * *

Sitting on the edge of the ruined stage, Mabel chewed nervously at an energy bar. She wasn’t hungry at all, but it provided a distraction from having to talk to her ghostly companion. There was a lot of bad blood between her and Gideon Gleeful, from opposing Stan’s business at the Mystery Shack, to trying to steal the journals and hurt her brother. Then there was the whole ‘creepy romantic stalker’ vibe she’d never quite gotten over.

“So… you’re looking well.”

Gideon scowled at this. “Oh, har har Miss Pines, very funny. Poor Lil’ Gideon’s gone and got himself turned into a ghost.”

“Yeah, I heard the rumours at most of the places I stopped on the way here. ‘Beware the haunted theatre’, that kind of junk. Guess it was true though. Dipper would probably say something about always trusting urban legends if he was here.”

“Well, no matter your reason for being here, it sure is swell to see a friendly face after so long alone and incorporeal.”

“You like the summoning spell?” Mabel bragged. “That’s right, I know magic now. The real stuff too, none of that hokey fake camera bullshit you used to pull.”

Gideon waved a dismissive arm, leaving a faint trail of mist. “Pah, where’s the fun in ‘real’ magic? You just wave your arms and stuff happens, poof, easy, boring. My magic is much more interesting. It’s all about sleight of hand, choosing what to reveal to the audience, then distracting them with something else to convince them of a dazzling display.”

Mabel continued chewing on the bar. Gideon’s words were reminding her too much of the Society of the Open Eye’s methods of control. “Is that you’ve been doing then? Stage magic?”

“Indeed, been all across the country.”

“Yet you ended up in this dump of a theatre in the middle of nowhere. Oh how the mighty have fallen, Gid.” She thought about Quattro and his travelling circus. He’d seemed to have been much more successful than Gideon had obviously turned out, despite the fact that the Gleefuls had always had deeper pockets than the Pines. Not Northwest level rich, but still. “So what happened? Your show was so bad that this place just collapsed around you out of shame?”

Gideon looked at her sadly. “We don’t have to spar like this Mabel. I thought all that stuff from before was water under the bridge. I do confess though – my memory of the end is rather hazy. Quite like my current appearance.” He stuck his hand right through his intangible chest and wiggled his fingers at Mabel.

She stared back at him, stone-faced. “We’re not friends Gideon. We never were, and we’re clearly not about to become buddies now you’re… now you’re dead.” Saying it out loud made it feel more permanent than she wanted to admit.

“I thought by the end of that summer we were more than mere rivals. I gave everything to help rescue you from Bill’s bubble world. And I was part of the Zodiac, that’s gotta count for something.”

Just like Wendy, Mabel thought. A person she also wasn’t sure whether to trust. Yet another comparison to her current turmoil. She’d wanted to get away from all that. She was decidedly not good with these complex people problems.

“The Zodiac. That’s basically why I’m here. See, there’s a group, they’re trying to look for us, the ten of us who tried to stop Bill in his pyramid. You’re the Pentagram, or rather, you were. Huh, I wonder what that means for their plans.” If the a-mortals were worried about them somehow forming the Zodiac again to combat their portal plans, they were barking up the wrong alley. How could they even form the Zodiac when Stan and McGucket, like Gideon, had been dead these last few years, and Ford was in no state to help?

She wondered if the a-mortals, who from what she’d seen usually appeared so all-knowing, could simply be misinformed. They might be stumbling around with no goal just as the trio had. At least today she could get to the root of her mission without delay.

“I’m getting to the bottom of this.” She stood up and faced the spirit of the not-so friendly ghost. “You must remember something about what happened here. Maybe if I try an aura detection spell, that might jog your memory.”

“Anything you wish Mabel, probe me all you like.” Gideon gave a high-pitched giggle. Mabel had to stifle the urge to hurl.

“Whatever, let’s just get this over with.” She mumbled the spell as quickly as she could, then opened her hands towards Gideon’s spirit. Tendrils of rainbow coloured light passed through and around him, eliciting more giggles as he bent double. After spinning in place a few times, the light trail shot off towards backstage.

She clambered over the large fallen beam and through a crack in the wall. Behind the stage it was pitch black, so she lifted her hand and cast another spell. “Fiat Lux.” With a soft blue glow showing the way through a narrow passage large enough to fit one person at a time, she started crawling towards her goal. She allowed a smile to creep onto her face. Both those spells had worked perfectly. This mission wouldn’t take that much longer.

“Very impressive!”

“Ah!” She jumped in fright. Gideon’s face was suddenly right up beside her, while his body floated through the wall of debris as if it wasn’t there. “Don’t creep up on me like that! It’s no fair when you have an intangible body.”

“My sincere apologies. I’m still not used to existing like this.”

“Not used to boundaries either, eesh.” She tried to focus on squeezing through a tight section, but Gideon refused to allow her a moment’s peace.

“You don’t like me much, do you.”

“Not in this particular moment,” she said through gritted teeth. “You were never very nice to me or my brother. You tried to fix your mistakes by the end, and that’s good. But I can’t forget and move on that easily. You hurt me, Gideon.”

“And you never got a chance to process that, did you?” He floated round to face her. She tried to focus on the passageway still visible behind his translucent body. “Seriously, did you ever really think about how I made you feel? You have all this resentment bottled up even after years without my influence.”

“Ok, so maybe I didn’t dwell on it, so what? Could you move, you’re blocking my light.” She shuffled forwards on her knees and passed straight through Gideon. She felt a slight tingly feeling but kept moving forwards. 

Gideon reformed further back in the passage, glowering after her. “You can’t ignore me forever! You run away and leave people behind. Just like your brother.”

Mabel halted at once. She felt the colour drain out of her face. “How do you know about that?” she quietly whispered. Suddenly any kind of noise she made – the creak of the floorboards, her gradually quickening breathing, even her own heartbeat – felt like a bomb going off in a silent library.

“I can see your thoughts. Well, I can skim the surface at least. It’s on your mind right now.”

“It’s not polite to read a girl’s mind without asking.” In truth it wasn’t his power that had stopped her in her tracks. It was what he’d said about her. “It’s been a long time. You might think you know what I’m thinking, but you’re dead wrong. Agh, sorry, bad phrasing.”

“It’s true though, isn’t it? You used to hide away from facing reality. You did that with me at first, remember? I thought you could be the love of my life. You didn’t confront me until it was too late, stringing me along because you were too scared to open up.”

“That’s not- I didn’t- not like that-“

He cut off her weak protestations. “Then again with that little bubble Bill made you. A perfect world with no responsibilities. That’s you May Pines. When something that shakes you to the core presents itself, you’ll do anything to avoid dealing with it.”

“But I-“

“That’s what all this has been about. When your brother left you, did you try and see his point of view? Did you try and think about the perspective of someone who wanted nothing more than to keep his family safe? Including you.”

Reckless. That was something Mason had said about her. Always putting herself on the line, whether it was by antagonising some evil corporation or just through the mundane action of swinging through the air on her grappling hook. Had he been scared for her wellbeing as much as his and Pacifica’s own?

Gideon floated into her line of sight and continued. “You were always moving forwards, from one campaign to the next. A revolution in Asia. A political struggle in Europe. A corrupt business to fight in the US. Jumping from one to the next so you could keep avoiding dwelling on the past. In many ways nothing’s changed. Just like before you’re stuck in an eternal present. Too scared to look back and find anything that challenges your sense of self, too wrapped up in the moment to plan ahead and think of what’s to come.”

Maybe that was why she’d moved on from so much in her life. He parents, her old friends from Gravity Falls. Even Pacifica and Mason. Gideon was just one in a long line of those she couldn’t bear to face. She thought of the two options she’d set out for herself. In one she’d have to try and reconcile the ideal Eli and Wendy she remembered, with their truly revealed selves. She’d have to understand Mason’s way of seeing the world.

In the other… she’d end up affirming everything Gideon was accusing her of. She chuckled wryly to herself. “When did you of all people become an expert on my life?”

He smiled weakly. “I didn’t. Come on. You’re nearly there. I think I remember what happened at the end of my story.”

Mabel finally found the energy to push on down the passage. It widened out further down. She assumed these must have been the dressing rooms. The wood of the theatre’s walls, which before had been broken but largely undecayed, started turning blackened. The place was more ash than wood now. There was a charred archway, with a single door still standing in her way. She held the handle and spoke without turning to look back. “What’s inside here?”

“The final step to understanding yourself. Goodbye, Mabel. It’s been fun, one last rodeo. Think of me, sometimes, will you do that?”

“I… yes, I will. I think it’s time I did spend some time thinking about all the things I left behind.” In her mind she pictured the two people she’d briefly thought she could live without again. Then she turned the door handle.

To say she was surprised by the smell of ash and the burnt bones inside would have been a lie. She’d been expecting this ever since hearing the rumours about this place back at the diner. But seeing Gideon’s last remains like this, abandoned and un-mourned was no less chilling. The a-mortals would certainly not be showing up here anytime soon.

She said a quiet prayer under her breath, cobbling together something from her various beliefs to say a last rite of sorts for Gideon. He hadn’t deserved this ignoble end. According to what she’d heard from the people at the diner, this place had burnt down all the way back in 2020. He’d only been 17 at the time. She knew that no death was ‘fair’, but it still stung that he’d gone so young.

Hearing silence once again, she checked to see that his ghost had vanished. No sign of him anywhere. Had he even been here, or had that whole encounter merely been a reflection of her own jumbled thoughts?

She realised that things couldn’t go back to the way they’d been. That was sad, but in some ways freeing. For once, she had a future to look forward to and a past to reconsider. The present almost seemed like a footnote.

Quietly so as not to disturb the resting bones further, she closed the door on this chapter of the past. She’d reached some kind of conclusion with her feelings. She turned and headed out of this decaying relic of a place. There were relationships in the here and now she had to tend to that required her full attention.


	22. The Past

“Radiation transmission spreader?”

“Check.”

“Internal circuit breaker 14.B?”

“Check-a-mundo.”

“Dynamic coherence ring?”

“Hold on, lemme see. Check, Quattro’s working on shipping that one over ASAP.”

“Zeus plugs?”

“Uh…”

“Mabel… did you lose them again?”

“Ooh, wait, no, I was using them as a paperweight. Check.”

Mason smiled and folded over the last page of his checklist. He and the girls had swooped down to Mexico to retrieve the Stan ‘O War, and then laid all the collected pieces they’d gathered since reuniting in Seattle back in September out on the front deck. After fruitlessly trying to combat the a-mortals’ hunt for the Zodiac, the trio had reapplied themselves to finishing off the goal of collecting all the portal parts. Working with the Society felt like it gave them a ‘security net’ of sorts. No longer was it the three of them against the world, they had allies with the resources to help.

Now it was nearly early May, just a few days before Pacifica’s 29th birthday - 8 months of travelling and searching, and they’d finally collected nearly everything. Wendy and Eli were back in Switzerland, overseeing the transport of all their components. If it wasn’t for their contribution the quest could have lasted another 8 months easily.

Satisfied with Mabel’s inventory check, he glanced over at Pacifica, who was being unusually quiet. She was staring out to sea. They were making their way back up north to where Mabel had arranged some land transport to move the ailing ship wherever they needed to go next.

“Hey Paz, what’s wrong? We did it!” He tried to raise some cheer, but she only smiled weakly.

“I didn’t sleep well last night, that’s all… particularly bad dream…”

“Oh. What did you see? Mabel doesn’t have to hear if it’s too bad, just me.”

“That’s just it, in the dream, she was there. It felt like she was clinging to us, draining us somehow. I don’t get it. It feels like… some dam within us is about to break and the water’s gonna flood out.”

“Hey guys!” Mabel called over from the fore-deck. “Dipper, you missed one!”

“Huh?” He and Pacifica took the clipboard off Mabel. As she’d said, there was one component with no tick mark next to it. “How could I have missed that?”

Pacifica read the name of the component. “It’s a coaxial lens connector. Never heard of it.”

“Wait, I think I have.” Mason stroked his chin for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Got it. Me and Rajesh used one of those back at the observatory. If I’m remembering right, we had a couple of busted backup units right before we left. I was gonna fix them up at home, it wouldn’t have taken long. They should still be there.”

“Oh my gosh!” Mabel started hopping from foot to foot. “That means I’m finally gonna see your house in Jersey! I can’t wait, it’s gonna be so cool. I’ll go set the course!” She bounded off, leaving Mason and Pacifica staring at each other pensively.

“Well, Pacifica. Ready for that dam to break?”

“Yeah. Time to see how long we can hold back. Home sweet home…”

* * *

It was in the summer of 2021 when Mason and Pacifica came to the most boring town in the world. After both finishing their last year of college, Mason decided to shake things up with his summer. For the first time in nine years he wouldn’t be going to stay at the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls with Mabel. Instead, he tentatively asked Pacifica to come on a backpacking trip around Europe. 

He wasn’t sure if she’d want to come at first, since he expected her to prefer an easier vacation on a beach or in a luxurious hotel. Thankfully Pacifica was very enthusiastic about the trip, happy to spend some time alone with her boyfriend without the stress of college bearing down on her anymore.

In hindsight this move would turn out to be one of the first steps towards Mason’s eventual break with Mabel, but at the time it had been a great experience. After a whirlwind tour of London, the couple went on a walking trip around the north of France. Hiking from one small town to the next through the woods was exactly the kind of activity Mason treasured the most.

After a week however, both of them were exhausted. The hotels they’d been staying in had few amenities, and they’d been pushing 15 miles on foot every day. When they arrived in the latest in a long line of French towns, they finally threw in the towel.

Coulommiers was the name of the place, Mason would never forget that. Later on he found out that there had been a commanderie of the Knights Templar, and that town was also known for a variety of cheese. At the time he knew nothing of that. All he and Pacifica saw was a boring grey high street, with drab architecture and empty streets.

They ran themselves ragged searching the town for something, anything, to spark some interest. The only thing in the whole town that was open was a small pharmacy off the main square. The town was a complete bust.

Yet they were grouchy and tired and couldn’t face the prospect of hiking onwards. Mason checked the local bus times, but they’d arrived too late. “Ok, bad news Pacifica. Next bus isn’t ‘til tomorrow morning. We’re gonna have to shack up somewhere for the night.”

“Not again. I can’t take these crummy towns. When you promised me a trip round Europe, Pines, I was expecting stuff like Paris, Rome, Berlin. You know, places with class and elegance. Not this bland slice of nothing.” She turned up her chin and looked down at him. “I’m not feeling happy about any of this. My feet hurt, my body feels exhausted, and this backpack weighs a ton. Maybe we should call this whole trip quits.”

“Well excuse me for inconveniencing you so much, Princess. You didn’t have to agree to this ‘endurance test’, yet you jumped at the chance to come. You could always be lazing around at home instead of here.” He breathed out. He was too tired and not in the mood to spar. “Look, how about this? One night in this dump, then tomorrow we’ll get public transport all the way to somewhere nice. Huh, that sound acceptable?”

“It’ll do. I’m not sure I can stand this place though. There’s _nothing_ to do whatsoever. Plus I think I’m coming down with something.”

“You are so not! It’s just fatigue from the walk.”

“I’m serious Mace, listen.” Pacifica gave the fakest tiny cough she could. Mason gave her a ‘seriously’ glare, but she was determined. “Let’s just pop into that pharmacy quickly, I could do with some sleeping pills at least. I don’t think another night on creaky bed will go over well.”

Mason relented and Pacifica led him by the hand into the cramped little pharmacy. Racks of pills and bottles crowded the shelves, as uniform and bland as the town outside. Mason’s eyes drifted lazily around, not looking for anything in particular as Pacifica pulled him onwards. 

She dragged him into a side aisle, away from the main counter where a bored French woman sat reading a magazine. “Ok, here’s the deal Pines.”

“Huh? What is this Paz?” He felt conspicuous, like they were about be accused of shoplifting something, in angry French shouting.

She put a finger to his lips. “Not so loud, dork. Back out there in the square, I was being kinda rude to you. I want to say sorry.”

“Who are you and what have you done with the real Pacifica?” he deadpanned.

“I’m being serious!” She said through gritted teeth. Her eyes aimed at the floor as she continued. “This doesn’t come easily for me to say, but… I do like being on this trip with you. Really, I do.” Her hand squeezed his softly. “I might be snippy and mean, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than…”

“Than what Paz?” He lifted her chin and stared deep into her eyes.

For a moment she just stared back at him. Then she smiled. “Than… with you.” Mason would remember that smile for the rest of his life. It was stripped of any haughtiness or superiority. She wasn’t being smug or self-satisfied. She was perfectly, honestly, happy.

Something inside his chest began to enflame. Suddenly every detail of Pacifica’s face jumped out at him anew. She was far from her peak, that much was true. He’d seen her looking better, dolled up for parties and dazzling, and the harsh light in the pharmacy would do nobody any favours. But now, with all traces of the makeup she’d applied the week before faded away, her eyes sparkled like he’d never seen them before. Even though her golden hair cascaded messily down her back, it framed her beauty in a way that kept him utterly entranced.

It was in that moment, in that boring town, that he decided he wanted to spend every waking minute of his life with Pacifica. That moment, where he realised he wanted to ask for her hand in marriage, as soon as he got a chance.

Mason finally jerked back into normal consciousness, realising that he’d been staring at Pacifica in silence for far, far too long. He turned his back to her, blushing and feeling immensely hot. He fumbled at the wall of pills for something to keep himself occupied.

“Mason, are you alright?”

“I’m fine! Perfectly fine! Oh boy.” He clutched a random box of pills and faced her again. 

Her smile was slightly more mischievous now, like she knew something weird was up. She placed the back of her hand up against his forehead. “You feel pretty hot. Sure you’re not the one who’s getting an illness?”

“Uh, I- uh- That’s right! Here’s some pills! For your cold!” He gave a toothy grin and passed the box over.

Pacifica’s smile somehow grew even more devilish as she examined the box. “Wow, very smooth Mason, five stars for execution.”

“W-what?”

“These pills.” She flashed him the box. “You could have just said you wanted to cheer me up tonight, dummy. I’m gonna get some actual headache pills.” She pecked him on the cheek then pushed the box back into his hands. 

He read what it said on the box. “Emergency contraceptive: reduces chance of pregnancy after unprotected… oh. Oh!” His cheeks reddened even further. He shook his head and took the birth control pills over to the front counter where Pacifica was waiting for him.

Even though he was still trying to get over the embarrassment of his unintentional forwardness, in his mind gears were already turning. The most boring town in the world had shown him the most beautiful woman in the world. Now all he had to do was find the perfect chance to propose.

* * *

Mabel was already bouncing up and down excitedly before her brother even turned the key to open the front door. It was like a slice of Mason and Pacifica’s lives was finally being opened up to her. The separation, the long five years apart, all of that could finally begin to heal with this symbolic gesture.

“Well, here we are,” Mason said wearily. They’d arrived after dark, their trip having been a long one. If there was one thing Mabel was most looking forward to once they completed the portal it was the fact that they wouldn’t have to travel anywhere for a good long while. “Hope you’re satisfied Mabel. I don’t really know what you’re expecting.”

“Watch your shoes on the carpet too.” Pacifica added. Mabel guiltily wiped her feet on the mat before entering their hallway. Something about Pacifica’s tone seemed unusually grumpy. Maybe she was just overprotective of keeping the house clean, but Mabel sensed something more.

She looked around the hallway. It was pretty sparsely decorated. Mabel had expected Pacifica of all people to have styled this place precisely to her every whim, so the lack of ostentatiousness surprised her. Still, buzzing with excitement she ran into the living room.

A standard sofa and armchair. Wooden table. Flat-screen tv. Nothing special really. Mabel frowned. “Oh. I was kinda expecting something a bit more personal.”

“How do you mean?” Pacifica asked. “This place is fine. We don’t need more than this.”

“Yeah, but it’s so sterile. Dipper’s room back in Piedmont used to have, I don’t know, stacks of books, nerd posters. Or our room in the Shack attic, with his note board. They had character. You don’t even have any photos out or souvenirs on the shelves.”

“It’s functional,” Mason said as his sister continued her thorough examination. “I know you like painting and decorating, but me and Pacifica were fine with keeping things simple.”

“Wait a sec. Is this wall still unpainted?!” She pointed to a section where soft yellow paint partly covered the corner of the room, before ending in a few streaks that barely covered the remainder of the white wall.

Mason rubbed his neck and nodded. “Uh, yeah, I kinda never got round to finishing it.”

“How long did you leave it like this?”

“About five years,” he said with a guilty grimace.

Mabel was gobsmacked at the level of neglect they’d both seemed to pay to this place. Had she been living here every room would have been full of personal touches, vibrant and full of life. This felt less like a welcoming well-lived in home and more like they’d barely moved in.

“Plus this place is so big, painting the whole thing would have taken forever.”

“Wait, yeah, this house is super huge for you two.” She’d seen how big the house was from outside, way too much space than one young couple would need. “Ooh, do you have like a super-secret bunker hidden in this place? Or a vault for hidden magic stuff? Or maybe a whole wing for Pacifica’s wardrobe, ha! Come on, why else would you guys buy such a large house?”

Pacifica and Mason awkwardly kicked their heels, trying to avoid eye contact and looked like they were obviously hiding something. Pacifica was even fiddling with her pine tree pendant, something she only did when very nervous.

“Guys?”

* * *

“Hurry up Pacifica! We’re so nearly at the peak. It’ll be worth the wait, trust me.”

Mason charged off again, barely giving Pacifica a moment to breathe. She halted deliberately, watching him head up the mountain path. Sometimes she wondered how someone who spent their life analysing fantastical mysteries could be quite so oblivious to the things right in front of him. He’d managed to completely miss her sour mood today for instance.

Lately he’d been acting so strangely, keeping more to himself and scribbling notes into Journal 6 almost conspiratorially. She also kept catching him staring at her oddly, in a way she didn’t recognise. This was something new from her boyfriend. And it worried her.

She had always been adept at noticing subtle changes to people's personalities. She’d been trained to be socially aware by her parents, to always know how to present herself perfectly, and how to judge anything that didn’t match their standards. She’d also undergone a lot of change in her own life. Breaking away so decisively from her parents was the obvious one.

So now when Mason was acting differently, slightly hesitant to chat, effortlessly bounding ahead of her, Pacifica duly noted all of it. She could tell what was going on. She knew what his eagerness to reach the top of the mountain was really about.

All she wanted to know now was why. Why the person she loved was overcome by a desire to keep away from her. Why he was going ahead fast enough so as to leave her behind, making her feel like he was shaming her for not having enough stamina.

Well enough was enough. Panting with the effort, she forced herself to climb the last distance to the mountain’s peak. She was going to have some stern words with Mason when she caught up with him.

Her final push along the rocks led her to emerge from the wooded path that most of the hike had followed. She saw Mason there, standing proudly behind a small glacial stream. Pacifica followed his gaze.

Despite her festering annoyance with him, she couldn’t help but be wowed by the view. The green grassy valleys below kept rising and rising, ending in sweeping white peaks that pierced the sky. She was amazed to look down upon clouds floating slowly below them. Back home in Oregon there were valleys and hills of course, but this Swiss landscape was on a wholly different scale. She had to squint at the most distant mountains, which shimmered in the glorious sunlight.

She turned to Mason to try and find some words to describe the sight. She came face-first with a purple flower he was holding out to her. “J’adore la Pacifique.” He smiled goofily at her in that adorable way he sometimes did when he thought he was being smooth and wasn’t self-conscious enough to doubt himself.

She took the flower. It was a lovely gesture, but she was still angry with him. She lightly tossed it aside, then pointed at his chest. “Alright, enough is enough. I’ve had it up to here with you, mister.”

Mason cocked his head to one side dumbly. “What? Don’t you like the view, Princess?”

“The view? The view! The view’s not important!” She crossed her arms and got in close to him. Instinctively sensing he’d made some kind of mistake Mason raised his hands to defend himself.

“Woah, Paz, what’s wrong?”

“Tell me why you’re acting strange.”

“Strange, who’s acting strange, me, pah, no way, I’m not acting strange!”

So she’d been right. He was hiding something. If she wasn’t so emotionally torn right now it would be amusing how easily she could cut straight to the heart of the matter. “I see how it is. You’re keeping something secret from me, that’s obvious. Ever since we left France you’ve been weird around me. I can read the signs. So get it over with, say what you’ve got to say.”

Mason rubbed the back of his neck and tried to avoid eye-contact. “That’s kinda harder than you think.”

Pacifica felt like he was stabbing her directly in the heart with every word. “I can take it, I’m not about to crawl up into a ball and cry Pines. If this is how you want to do it, then fine, I’m ready.” She set her lip into a straight line and willed herself to stay strong. She didn’t want to face that this was actually happening.

Mason breathed out heavily then tried to speak. It came out as more of a flood of words. “Oh man, I was trying to come up with what to say the whole way up here. I thought about doing it one way, then another, but nothing sounded right. And now that we’re talking about it that’s making things even more awkward and I just don’t know how to do this properly.”

“Just-“ She took a deep breath. “Just say it. End all of this prevaricating and say it.”

Mason closed his eyes, bracing himself for what he had to say. “Ok. Here goes. Pacifica-“

“You want to break up with me-“

“-I love you- wait, what?”

“What?” Pacifica was taken aback by what he’d said. “I don’t get it. I thought you…”

“Wait, you thought I wanted to- ha!” He couldn’t hold in his laughter. He sounded almost giddy about what she’d said. 

Pacifica pursed her lips and clenched her fists. “What’s so funny?! Hey, talk to me!”

“I’m sorry Paz, this is just- bwaha!” He broke down giggling again. Pacifica had never seen him laugh this way before. “Sorry, it’s the tension. I’m ok.” He bent over gave some quick breaths to compose himself. “I’m ok. Right, where was I? You seriously thought I wanted to break up with you?”

“I- yes, that’s what I thought all this was about, all the secrets and the way you kept running ahead.”

“Oh, Pacifica. Nothing could be further from the truth.” He pulled her into a warm hug, stroking her hair and trying to reassure her. She felt the resentment she’d had for him start to melt away. Then he broke the hug and coughed into his fist. “Alright, this wasn’t the perfect way I’d planned this, but whatever. Pacifica Northwest…”

He knelt down on one knee, which was a tricky on the rocky terrain. Then he reached into his jacket and held out a small box. “…Will you marry me?”

Pacifica’s mouth fell open as he revealed the ring inside. It was a modest diamond; she could tell that much. But it meant no less to her. Her mouth went dry and she felt overcome. Seeing Mason’s expectant face, she silently took the ring and placed it on her finger.

“So, I take it that means yes?”

Pacifica smiled wider than she’d ever done before. “Yes! Of course it does!” She gave a squeal of joy. She pulled him to his feet to embrace him tightly, then kissed him hard on the mouth. She felt him grab her, then he spun her round in her arms while they both laughed together. Swept up in the moment, she kissed him again and again, leaving a trail from his neck up to his face, wanting to feel as close together as she could to him.

After Pacifica’s brief fear about Mason and the whole whirlwind of the proposal, they both needed a moment to calm down. They quietly ate a packed lunch together, soaking up the view. They didn’t need words. It was enough just to sit together as future husband and wife.

Eventually Mason spoke, asking something that had been on his mind. “Pacifica, did you really think I ever wanted to leave you?”

The very idea sounded dumb now she heard it from him, particularly after all the excitement she was feeling currently. “Maybe, I don’t know. I was worried that you weren’t interested in me anymore. It was like you were putting up walls between us.”

“You should know me by now Paz, I never do anything like that intentionally,” he said simply. “After I bought the ring – and I can tell you that was _not_ easy to do behind your back – after that I started panicking. Before that point it was like I knew what I needed to do and just got it done. But once I had the ring… See, I thought it was the perfect time, but then doubt started creeping in. Like, maybe I was misjudging the moment and you weren’t ready for that kind of commitment? Even though we’ve known each other for nine years. But then maybe even that long wasn’t enough for you?”

Pacifica nodded along. It was a pattern she’d seen in him before. Put him up against something like a monster he’d researched in his Journal and he’d carry off the mission flawlessly. But put him in a social situation he wasn’t ready for and he’d collapse like tissue paper. It was this back and forth self-doubt cycle that Mason had been stressing over at every waking moment. No wonder he’d acted so reluctant to interact with her, when she was the main source of his anxiety.

She noticed he was still rambling. “Then I was all: is the ring nice enough, she’s rich and knows what kind of jewellery’s the best. One thing after another - was this the right time, would your parents finally butt in, would you truly accept me, was I making a huge mistake?”

“Hey, Mason?”

“What?”

“Shut up and kiss me.” She gripped his collar and pulled him onto her. As they slowly kissed she felt his body loosen up, like all the worry of the last few days was vanishing like her own self-doubt had done when he’d proposed. She felt his hands roving over her body, the desire for a more intense make-out session evident.

She halted him before she too got too distracted. “Wait, I have one question for you now. Why’d you choose this place to do it? I mean, you could’ve proposed after we had that fine dinner last week in Paris, or we could have gone somewhere super romantic like Florence or Venice.”

“That’s something I decided on pretty quickly. I wanted somewhere that reflected me and you. So many of my happiest memories are the times we used to explore the woods together in Gravity Falls. So I thought I should do it somewhere out in nature. Italy can wait for the honeymoon. I wanted somewhere as beautiful as the way I see you.”

Pacifica gave a snort of laughter and pushed him off of her slightly. “Oh my gosh, that’s so sappy.” Coiling a finger through her hair, she snuggled up close to him again. “Say something else like that.”

“Uh, your, um, eyes are sparkling nicely in the sun today?” He gave a small shrug. Mason never could perform well under pressure. “I will say this. You’ve never looked more amazing then how happy you were after you took the ring. You looked so cute in that moment.”

Pacifica was suddenly deadly serious. “Uh, newsflash dork, I always look cute.”

Mason fumbled out a hasty reply. “Well, uh, I mean, of course I think you do!”

Her lips crept up into a satisfied smile. “I know, I just wanted to hear you say it.”

“Hey, that’s cheating! You’re the worst.” Now he was smiling wickedly. Pacifica knew what was coming next. She felt her body convulse as he started unrelentingly tickling her belly. They rolled together in the long grass, each of them finally free of worry.

* * *

With Mason rifling through his study for the coaxial connector, Pacifica gave Mabel a quick tour of the rest of the house, if only to try and stifle her energetic curiosity. Even though the couple was being weirdly evasive, Mabel was still glad to finally be visiting them on their home turf.

Mabel was most dazzled by Pacifica’s personal art study, a room where she could work on her architectural plans. There was a wide desk and various pens and drawing tools set out. Though Pacifica used it less nowadays, preferring to work away from home at the office, it was still a room she was glad to have. Mabel enjoyed seeing it as well, since she’d been to art college too after all.

She would have probably tried getting a studio room like this herself if only she hadn’t been so busy criss-crossing the world in search of causes to fight for. Unlike the other rooms in the house, this one felt well-used and had signs that it was clearly Pacifica’s space. Mabel picked up a small sketch pinned to the drawing board; it was a profile of Mason. Pacifica still found the time to practice her faces as well as the more technical diagrams then.

Despite having two studies, two spare bedrooms, and a massive living room, it was still obvious how much of this house sat unused. While it wasn’t a mansion, it was still more sizable than Mason and Pacifica really needed.

So as soon as Mabel got a chance she snuck off, claiming to go and use the bathroom. Then she headed right to the one room Pacifica had glanced over in the tour. With every room she’d given some indication of its use, but with this one she hadn’t said a word, gliding Mabel quickly past.

Mabel wasn’t sure what she’d find inside but had no doubt that it was source of all this coyness. Near the end of their world tour she’d thought that her relationship with the two of them was steadily improving. The trip to Switzerland had changed everything, scattering them apart again and leaving her unsure of how the three of them could relate. This extra level of mystery Mason and Pacifica were trying to maintain didn’t help and wasn’t fooling anybody. They were clearly hiding something from her.

The door of secrets opened easily. She’d been expecting it to be locked. None of her infiltration skills would be needed it seemed. She shut the door behind her, leaving it open a crack. Even though she was infringing on the unspoken privacy of this room, she still wanted Mason and Pacifica to know she was in here if they needed to. She didn’t hit the light switch though, lest they find her before she learnt what this room was for. 

She crept forwards, light on her feet to avoid making too much noise. She almost cried out when she stepped on something. It was soft underfoot, and at first Mabel panicked and thought it was a rat or something like that. But whatever it was stayed still.

She bent down to pick it up. It was a small plush llama toy. Very curious. There was a bookshelf along one wall she could make out in the sliver of light from the door. It barely came up to her hip. She couldn’t make out what the books were without her glasses, but the wall behind had caught her eye.

Unlike the rest of the house, this room had clearly been painted quite brightly. The light from the door showed a thin strip of blue, alongside a curving white shape. Blue clouds against the sky? That didn’t fit either Mason or Pacifica. All the other walls were similarly painted in this happy style. It was vaguely unnerving, that blend of something so cheery left abandoned and sealed off.

She probed deeper into the room but hit into something. It was the edge of a bed. No, far too small for that, with high barred sides. It was a cot.

As the realisation dawned on her, Mabel dropped the llama toy. Before she could process what she’d found, she was suddenly blinded as someone turned on the light.

“You shouldn’t be in here.”

* * *

Mason and Pacifica’s wedding was early in 2022. It was a happy day at the time, though looking back much of it would seem bittersweet. The ailing Stan Pines managed to make it out to the venue with his brother’s help, but it was obvious how far his health was declining. It was only a few months before his tragic passing.

Pacifica’s parents also made an effort to come out to the wedding, despite their lifetime disdain for Mason still being clear. At least they hadn’t made too much of a fuss. They let their daughter have her special day, then left again without upsetting anyone. Pacifica hadn’t seen them again since that. Both parties preferred to keep separate that way.

This ended up being a prefigurement to what happened with Mabel as well. She’d been so ecstatic to help Pacifica plan the wedding, jumping into planning the project with an intense zeal. Seeing her so happy had only made Mason feel strangely empty though. Already by that point she’d started earning a reputation as a troublemaker. 

While he was largely focused on Pacifica, during the wedding he’d had in the back of his mind the thought of moving away from Mabel, to get some distance from her should any of her actions have widespread consequences.

On the whole though, it had been wonderful day in both his and Pacifica’s lives. In fact, it had been the last time both of them had been truly joyous and unburdened.

Shortly after, only a few months into their marriage, Stan passed away. In that time they’d both heard about Mabel’s ‘activities’. Together they made a choice. After the funeral ceremony was done, Mason took his sister aside and told her of their plan to move across the country. Away from her.

Neither twin wanted to say much. They each felt let down by the other, but Mabel agreed to stay away if that’s what he really wanted. That was what Mason remembered most. It hadn’t been an argument, there were no tears shed. There was only the crushing sense that the tether between them had finally snapped.

So, like another set of Pines twins long ago, Mason and Mabel ended up living on opposite sides of the US. This time it was Mason who would travel across the country, ending up in the very same state that Stan and Ford had grown up in. Mason and Pacifica tried to look forward to their new beginning. They saw Stan’s death as one last tragedy, then they could wipe the slate clean and start their life together afresh. That was their dream.

Things hadn’t panned out that way.

Mason had allowed 10 minutes to pass before leaving the bedroom. He was still angry, at Pacifica for not listening to him, and at himself for shouting at her. They’d both gone through too much in the past week to act rationally about any of this.

He looked down at the book in his hands. He hadn’t held Journal 6 in months. After settling in with their new jobs, Mason thought for a brief sliver of time that things were perfect. Then the test results came back. They repeated the tests and the results were always the same.

They’d looked for any solution. They tried new diets and exercise routines. Mason made elaborate schedules for them both to follow. None of the expensive treatments they researched would apply here. 

When Pacifica had come into their bedroom clutching Journal 6 to her chest, he knew that this had to stop. She’d begged him to consider it. At first he’d acquiesced. But as they read the book together it became obvious that there was no simple solution within its pages.

Over and over she’d pleaded with him. “There must be something we can do!”

And every time he had to shake his head. Then her voice became raised. It was no longer a request, no, she _demanded_ that he find a way to solve this. Shouting that he’d never given up on her before, why should this be any different? All he’d done was angrily belittle her, telling her in no uncertain terms that the journals weren’t a way out of this. Then he’d made the mistake of suggesting that perhaps they should just keep trying again and not worrying.

No wonder she’d eventually run off, slamming the door as she’d gone. He’d seen her anger and rage before, but in all the years he’d known Pacifica she’d only ever been this passionate when fighting with her parents. He shivered at the idea that she’d been inspired to such white-hot emotion again by his own actions.

After waiting those 10 minutes alone to try and think of the right words to say he still had nothing. But he knew that he had to try and mend things. He crept down the stairs of their large house, aware that every step echoed menacingly around.

“Pacifica?” he called softly, hoping that he could convey something of an apology with his tone. No reply. Only the sound of his own voice reverberating through the house. He regretted rushing so enthusiastically into all of this. First the move, then setting up the house. They’d been too rash, perhaps more time to think would have resulted in softening the eventual blow.

He quickly checked the kitchen and sitting room, but it was clear she wasn’t there. He had a suspicion in the back of his mind where he’d find her.

He came to the door and felt an almost visceral nausea looking at it. He knew that prolonging this wouldn’t help. He had to rip off the band-aid and get it over with. He swung the door open, expecting to find Pacifica inside, distracting herself with a longing for what had been taken from them.

It was dark inside, but he could see that she wasn’t there. He flicked on the light, partly just to remind himself of the pain. Often on Mystery Hunts greater adrenaline levels from fear worked to focus his mind, so this might work on the same principle.

He looked at all the hastily bought mounds of toys and books that would never be used. The brightly painted walls mocked him with all the stolen potential. The cot would always be empty.

So much for this new life they were trying to start out. Already their plans for the future were in tatters. All the stress was starting to bleed over and affect both their performances at work. They also probably weren’t making a very good impression on their new neighbours, what with all the shouting at the top of their lungs that had gone on tonight.

This room was emblematic of all of their lost dreams. This was the baby’s room. They hadn’t even reached the point of choosing names before they’d learnt the terrible news. It was already too much. He turned to leave, unable to take another second of it.

As he did so, he spotted a glimmer out of the corner of his eye. Hanging from the cot was Pacifica’s Pine Tree shaped pendant, the one he’d given her for her 18th birthday, the first one they’d spent together after becoming a couple. 

He picked it up immediately and cradled it in his hands. She almost never took it off, no matter what. Something was seriously wrong. Well, something was already seriously wrong, but this was even worse. Panic started rising in his chest.

“Pacifica?!” His call was a lot louder this time. “Pacifica!” He no longer cared if the entire street heard him, he had to find her. He ran through the house again, frantically scouring every room for a sign of her.

He was in the living room when he found her. Initially he’d glanced over the window. Then, doing a double-take, he finally saw his wife. His heart felt like it was about to sink so far that it would fall out of his chest.

He grabbed a coat, not even sparing a second to put it on, and walked out into the street. Spits of rain fell on him, but Mason no longer cared. He only cared about Pacifica, framed softly in the orange from the streetlight ahead.

The cone of light was the sole beacon against the night. The light was a warm auburn, but Pacifica looked cold and fragile. She was clutching her legs close to her chest, rocking very slightly back and forth. She barely acknowledged Mason’s approach, but as he draped the coat around her shoulders she flinched slightly.

“You shouldn’t be out here.” She didn’t look up at her husband at all. Her voice sounded ragged, far from the confidence she normally exuded.

He studied her expression, seeing the loss and the sheer exhaustion written all over it. Makeup running, and hair frizzy from the rain were clear signs as anything that something was wrong. Her eyes were red raw from crying, though now she was mostly too drained for that.

“I came to find you.” He got down next to her and tried his hardest to make that simple statement mean something, to show how much he’d needed to find her. “Pacifica, what are you doing out here? You’ll catch your death in this rain!”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m doing fine on my own.” It was evident that this was completely false, with the two of them sitting here on the cold pavement past midnight in the rain. “Just leave me alone.”

“You know I’m not going to do that.” He tried to reach for her hand, but she jerked it way. “Please, talk to me Pacifica. We can get through this, but only if we talk. I want to help you.”

Pacifica swivelled to face him for the first time. She couldn’t hold back the burst of anger any longer. “There it is at last! That’s always been you! Ever-helpful Mason can’t stand to see me unhappy. Cause that’s why you chose me, isn’t it! Because I’m broken.” Her voice cracked and she turned away. “No one else but you would ever want me. I was weak and vulnerable, so you thought I’d be an easy catch. Guess you were right.”

Mason gently turned her face back to his and wiped away a stray tear. “Pacifica, that’s the furthest thing possible from the truth. I didn’t fall in love with you because you were weak, but because you were so, so strong. You never backed down from anything. I didn’t have that confidence in my life. Seeing it in you was always so inspiring.”

Although she didn’t move her head, Pacifica’s eyes darted away nonetheless. “But I’m a failure.” She started rocking forwards and back, like it was a nervous tic to replace fiddling with her missing pendant. “My parents were right. No one will love me if I’m not perfect in every way. Now I’m broken you shouldn’t want me either.”

Mason’s stomach clenched painfully. This was Mason’s biggest fear made real. That Pacifica could ever revert. 13 years of indoctrination from her parents had obviously never left her, but the worst instincts had been shed ever since she’d met the twins back in 2012. Until now.

“Pacifica… _I_ love you. I want you to always remember that: You are loved. You might not think it, but to me you’re perfect exactly the way you are. I once told you I’d be there for you, forever and ever.” He opened his hand and offered the necklace back to her. “That was a promise. I’m with you to the end, no matter what gets in our way.” She stared for a moment at the coiled-up silver chain and pendant.

Wrapping her hand around his slowly, she gripped the necklace tightly between their grasp. Every touch was an agonising sensation for Mason, he could feel the sadness radiating from her soft grip. Instinctively he pressed his forehead to hers. “I’m here for you, Princess,” he gasped out, wishing with all his might that she’d reciprocate.

Her grip on the pendant and his hand tightened, then she leapt forwards at him with a desperate desire. They kissed messily under the streetlight, each of them wracked with despair and wanting to feel as one again. Mason wrapped his arms around her, feeling how cold her body was. He rocked her in his arms, the spoke again, quietly. “You know Pacifica, I always thought it would be the other way round.”

“What do you mean?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, the air pregnant with tension.

“I always feared that _you_ were too good for _me_! You’re smart, elegant, confident, stunningly beautiful! What am I compared to that? I’m a massive nerd, I’m no good at opening up to people, I barely care about my appearance. Now look at me – I can’t focus at work, everything I planned for in New Jersey is gone, I’ve got no family left to turn to. I’ve driven everybody away except you. Which of us is the broken one, eh?”

Pacifica let out a hysterical laugh. “We’re both super messed up, you know that?”

Mason started laughing too, and then neither of them could hold back the strangled outburst. Despite the heartache, laughing in that frantic way was all they could muster. Eventually Pacifica started coughing, too haggard to carry on. She removed her hand from Mason’s, taking the necklace with her.

She pushed away her blonde hair and reattached the silver pendant around her neck. It shimmered slightly under the orange light. Even out here at her lowest, Mason was still overcome with how magnificent she looked. “I guess it’s time to talk then.” Her tone was serious again, with any self-pity mercifully absent. There was hope in his wife’s eyes again.

He couldn’t ‘solve’ her like one of his journal problems. They’d been foolish to even try that. Now he had to do the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. He had to explain to the woman he loved most in the world why they had to bury all of this in the past.

“I think the only way we’re going to come through this is if we find a way to carry on together. We have to move on like we did with… with our west coast problems…” He could see the hurt in her expression already growing, but there was no other choice. “I wish there was any other way. With all my heart. But we’ve got to keep on living our lives. This doesn’t define us.”

Mason stood up and held out his hand for Pacifica. She intertwined her slender fingers with his and let him pull her up. The two of them left the sliver of light, that single haven from the darkness, and went inside to figure out their future.

* * *

“You shouldn’t be in here.” Pacifica was standing by the door with her arms crossed. She had a small smile on her face though, like she knew how naughty Mabel had been sneaking into this room.

“Uh, Paz! I was just looking for the bathroom, yep, that’s it, I just came into the wrong room and-“

“We know why you’re in here, Mabel.” Mason joined Pacifica in the doorway. He wasn’t quite smiling, but there was no malice in his look. They’d both clearly expected her to come here.

Mabel threw her arms wide in an apology. “I’m sorry guys. I should have just asked. I think I can piece together now why you two have been acting odd since we got here.” Before saying another word, she went over and hugged them both. She let go, seeing them both smiling sadly. “So this is why you don’t like talking about your home life, eh? I’m so sorry guys.”

Mason brushed it off. “It’s fine sis, it really is. We’ve had a long time to get used to this state of affairs. We both know and accept that we can’t…” His voice caught in his throat. “…that we can’t have kids.”

“What about adoption?” This was received by two faces who’d clearly discussed the very idea at length in the past. Clearly it was something they decided they couldn’t handle.

“We put a lot our hopes and dreams into the idea of our baby,” Mason said. “We couldn’t just shift that affection over afterwards. And by the end we were both too worn out to even try.”

“But it’s been five years! Things might have changed, surely you could try again-“

Pacifica cut her off curtly. “I did try, Mabel. Over and over again, every time it was the same. The doctors only confirmed it. I can never give us kids.” Though she said this like it was something she’d come to terms with, Mabel saw in her eyes a distant longing of such sadness that it made her own heart ache. “You can blame my parents I guess, like all the other crap they burdened me with. That’s the reason they put so much attention to making sure I was perfect and ready to take over their company. Because this stupid thing is genetic. They were lucky to have me at all.”

Mabel spoke slowly, trying not to say anything offensive. “So you’re totally infertile? That must have been awful to deal with.” She placed her hand on Pacifica’s shoulder in hopes of showing what little support she could. Pacifica didn’t reply but placed her hand on top of Mabel’s to show she appreciated the gesture.

Mason ran a hand through his hair and started trying to explain. “This was my plan. Since you were messing up your life – at least, that’s what I thought _at the time_,“ he stressed, “I wanted to start anew. Pacifica didn’t care about her family and through you I was losing mine. So I thought we could start a new family. We’d put all our love and attention on a little Mason or Pacifica running around. That’s why we got this house and why the only room we finished decorating was this one.”

Mason looked wistfully at the painted fluffy clouds on the wall. “It wasn’t long before we found out the news. Every time we’d get our hopes up.”

“And every time we’d get a negative on the tests,” Pacifica finished. “The worst part was that we had no one to turn to. We didn’t know anyone here well enough to confide in, we had to muddle through on our own.”

Pacifica and Mason held each other’s hands and rested their heads together. Saying all this, digging up the old wounds, was still painful.

“Well… you’ve got me now,” Mabel said quietly. Both of them looked surprised. They’d been so wrapped up in the past it was like they’d forgotten she’d been in the room.

“It’s alright, Mabel,” Pacifica said softly. “This is something we both went over a long time ago. We decided that since we couldn’t change things, we just had to forget and move on. That’s what we did. Right up until my dreams got too bad and we had to go find you.”

“Look, I know this is tough. It’s gonna sound harsh of me to say, but this isn’t be all and end all. I know it’s always gonna hurt, but you two are more than _this_.” Mabel gestured at the empty cot. “We’ve done so much recently, sampled so many different cultures, travelled to some amazing places and encountered magical stuff like nothing we’d ever found before! But if I’ve seen anything in the last few months, it’s how amazing the both of you are. You leapt out of this ‘retirement’ from adventuring like you’d never left it. Just because of what you’ve gone through doesn’t make you any lesser as people.”

She looked them in the eye, conveying that this was as serious as she could be, no ‘goofy Mabel’ present. “I realised recently that ignoring the things that hurt only leads to those same things staying with you. They live in the back of your mind like an evil presence. The only way to be truly happy is to face those issues and come through stronger.”

She looked back and forth between them. They were hesitant to be so open about it, even now. “Look, don’t sweat it, ok. It’s out in the open now at least. You don’t have to worry. So Dipper, did you get the coaxial lens connector we needed.”

“Oh, oh sure.” Shaken from the stupor, he showed Mabel the small length of cable coiled around a gear-like holder.

“Awesome. See, this is what I’m talking about, thanks to you, Pacifica, we’ve started this whole adventure. Now with Dip’s science stuff we’ve come full circle and finished it.”

“Now we just need someone to help us put the whole damn thing together.” Pacifica rolled her eyes, but it was with a playful smirk.

“What are we waiting for then!” Mabel said, grinning wildly now that everything was sorted. “I know the perfect person we can go to! But that’s for later. It’s Paz’s birthday in a few days, what say we go have a nice celebration dinner together or something to cheer us all up.”

Before leaving the room, Mason and Pacifica shared a kiss. They both said, “I love you,” to each other and left with their heads held high. Once they were out of the room, Mabel’s grin was replaced with a serious expression. She looked around the bright room one last time. Then she turned out the light and left the past in the past.


	23. The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter reintroduces a major character I first created for my previous fic, The Mystery Teens 2: Seasons of Change. I give a basic overview of her backstory here, but anyone wanting further details should see chaps 8, 17, 18, 25, and 26 of that story (though it's wrapped up in the main arc). Other than this one character, my intention is still to try and make Forever Falling basically understandable for newcomers, so I hope it's not too jarring for anyone without the full context.

Through the sheets of rain hitting the windshield, Pacifica could make out the shape of the Fundshauser castle jutting over the edge of the cliff, like a ship adrift at sea. Framed by the intermittent flashes of lightning, she could easily see the sharp angles of the gothic structure despite the darkness and the heavy storm. She always had an eye for impressive construction work, and this was no slouch.

Perched rather incongruously on top of the castle was a tall metal radio tower. It seemed awkwardly grafted on, clearly a recent addition as evidenced by the scaffolding still left out around the base. It was this odd combination of an ancient building with modern technology abutting it that made it very clear this was where they needed to be.

A particularly loud and nearby clap of thunder made Mabel yelp beside her. "Man, why did Candy have to choose such a remote place to meet up? We could’ve met, oh, I don’t know, in a motel room or a bar. Not a freaking castle!”

“Relax,” Mason said, “She probably needs this place for space reasons. Remember McGucket’s old workshops, if she’s anything as productive as him then she’ll be working on something big.”

“I thought she worked in software?” Pacifica queried. “You know, Chiu-tech does phones, wi-fi stuff, digital.”

Mabel leant forward from the back seat to whisper into her ear. “That’s a part of it, her more public front. You don’t know the secret stuff like I do though. She’s been working on some major projects. She’ll be exactly who we need to build something like a portal.”

“And she just happens to be working on these ‘major projects’ in a spooky castle in the middle of Austria. Of course.” Pacifica pulled the car into the castle’s long driveway. Eschewing umbrellas for fear of being struck by lightning, the trio rushed to the front door with their coats held over their heads.

Mason banged on the door, then gentlemanly used part of his coat to cover Pacifica from more of the rain. Mabel giggled at his weak attempt of chivalry. No-one was going to be staying dry today.

Eventually the heavy wooden door of the castle opened. A chiselled man in formal military dress greeted them and gestured for them to get in out of the rain. Once inside Mabel shook off the water like a dog, spreading it everywhere.

“Ach! Not all over the rug! That’s a priceless 14th century weaving!”

“Ooh, sorry Marius. The weather outside is just frightful today!” Mabel said cheerily in way of an apology, shaking the hand of their host. Marius von Fundshauser, heir to the fabulously wealthy estate they were now standing within, was an old acquaintance of the Pines. They’d first met back at the Northwest Annual Party years before, when Marius had become smitten with one of Mabel’s closest friends, Grenda. Now the pair had been happily married some seven or eight years.

Pacifica regarded the empty hallway curiously. “No butlers, Fundshauser? I’d have thought in a place this large you’d need them. It puts my parents’ old manor to shame.” She whistled at the marvellous foyer, resplendent with suits of armour and paintings that probably cost more money than Mabel or Mason had ever possessed in their whole lives.

The Austrian baron nodded sadly. “Ja, ja , we had to lay all of them off. Miss Chiu was very demanding with her specifications. She wanted a blanket ban on all outsiders, to secure her work.”

“Is the work really that confidential?” Mason asked, not caring about the luxurious passages they passed through. His sister on the other hand was gawking at everything like she was a tourist in the Mystery Shack gift shop.

“I imagine so, with the amount of effort she’d put in to building and hiding the laboratory. Grenda really can sweet talk me into anything, and how could I say no when it was for such a close friend.” Marius guided them to a plush drawing room with a roaring fire. The trio were glad to dry off in the warm, but Marius casually pulled down a candlestick on the wall.

The fire descended into the floor, revealing a metal staircase leading into the bowels of the manor. Mason stared admirably at the mechanism. “I see Candy inherited her flair for designing secret entrances from her mentor. McGucket would be proud.”

Pacifica seemed unsure about the prospect of entering. “Candy has a secret lab? What’s so bad she has to hide it all the way out here at a remote castle, then bury it even further underground?”

“I mean, it’s not so unusual,” Mason said. “Great Uncle Ford had at least two underground labs remember, possibly more. I never did find out where Gideon got Journal 2 from after all.”

Ignoring any sense of unease, Mabel bounded down the staircase. “Cool! This is way better than when I last came, the builders were still putting all this in. I had to take a freight elevator, blech.”

Mason followed her down to the lab, but Pacifica noticed that Marius wasn’t making to follow. “What’s the matter? Hey, you can tell me, one rich kid to another.” She nudged him in the side and winked.

Marius smiled at the playful reminder of their shared experiences growing up. They both knew what it had been like to grow up surrounded by everything one could ever want. “You go on Pacifica. I’d rather not get into… all that. The work Candy does, it’s… a little off-putting, I must say. Good luck convincing her to join your cause though.”

Pacifica parted fondly with the baron, then descended down into the depths, wondering what exactly Candy’s work entailed.

* * *

While the castle above had been a decadent reminder of the past, the lab down below was as stark a difference as if they’d stepped into an alien spaceship. Gleaming walls of white with glass dividers shone brightly. It was an incredibly advanced research facility, with multiple wings for different sectors of study.

Once Mason picked his jaw up off the floor after nerding out so much, he moved to focusing entirely on the mission. “Right, this is definitely a good sign. With all the tech and research going on down here, Candy’s bound to be a massive help.”

“I’m sure she’ll help you guys out!” The trio turned and smiled as the booming voice of Grenda echoed through the room. She came in hefting a large wooden crate on one of her bodybuilder class arms like it was a bag of feathers.

Mason and Pacifica had to cover their ears to block out the sonic screech Mabel let out. “Eeh! Grenda, it’s been ages! I’ve got so much to catch you up on, travelling around the world, uncovering stupid big conspiracies, meeting sexy space aliens!”

“Ooh, do tell. I’ve just been working as Candy’s glamourous lab assistant! Not to mention throwing awesome parties with Marius.”

“Oh my gosh, Grenda, you’re living such a good life! I’m totes jealous.”

“You know it girl!”

The two of them giggled, and already Pacifica couldn’t take much more of this overly schmaltzy reunion. “Hey, Grenda. You mind showing me around this place. The twins can handle Candy.”

“Sure thing,” the heavyset girl boomed. “Let’s go to the antenna control, you can help us with the setup.”

They passed through a sliding glass door, leaving the twins to wait for Candy, and ended up in a large chamber filled with a set of complex gears built into one massive mechanism. On the walk over Pacifica had gone over what Grenda had said. “You said ‘us’? I thought Candy got rid of all of the other staff?”

“She did, Ann’s just working as an intern.”

“Wait,” Pacifica said, confusion starting to rise. “Ann. You don’t mean-“

“Ok Grenda, I’ve got the last crate!” That very familiar voice was attached to a brown-haired teenage girl in a thick purple sweater, not unlike those Mable used to wear. Despite a much thinner frame, she was carrying a similar crate to Grenda’s almost effortlessly in front of her face. “Where should I set this down, it’s got the tuning-“ As she lowered the box and saw Pacifica, the girl’s mouth dropped open.

Pacifica stared at every aspect of the face in front of her. In every respect the girl was an exact copy of herself, right down to the same pointed nose and sapphire eyes. But she was clearly younger, still only 17 years old, with fewer worry lines and slightly smoother skin. Her blonde hair had also noticeably been dyed a deep chestnut brown. Pacifica knew exactly who that was obviously in imitation of.

The girl’s shocked expression slowly turned into a manic grin. “Ciffy! It’s so good to see you!”

Pacifica awkwardly waved at the ecstatic girl, unsure of how to respond. “Hi there. Good to see you too, Andromeda.” She acquiesced to a standard bone-crushing hug as her clone ran towards her. Andromeda Northwest, here in Austria. And she’d thought today couldn’t throw anymore reunions at her.

* * *

When the head of Chiu-tech finally arrived in the entry foyer of the lab, she was distractedly tapping on a tablet. Dressed in a formal green suit, Candy looked much the same as she’d always done, intent and serious. She smiled warmly on seeing Mabel. “So good to see you May. When I got your message I was most interested in speaking with you.”

“Come here Candy! Heya babe,” Mabel said and pulled the Korean woman in close. The two of them kissed quickly on each cheek in greeting. Mason had still never got used to quite how personal Mabel could get with her old friends. But it was clear from the way Candy swiftly pulled away that her mind was on more pressing matters than social niceties.

“Onto business then.” She faced Mason with a focused stare. “You and I have much to discuss. We must be brief; my experiment tonight will require a lot of oversight once the storm intensifies. You chose a fine night to visit, I must say.”

“Sorry about that, but we had to get in touch as soon as possible. There’s a lot at stake you don’t know about.”

Candy raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure. Let’s talk, one to one.” Mabel's eager grin since arriving at the castle dropped off her face. Candy noticed and took her hands. “I’m sorry May, but I have to discuss this with your brother alone. There are things I need to be sure of before doing anything. I hope you can understand.”

Mabel was upset at this but didn’t protest. “Oh, ok. I’ll go see how Pacifica’s getting on then.” Mabel looked back several times before leaving the room.

Mason turned on Candy accusingly. “Alright, spill it. Why don’t you want Mabel around while we discuss this?”

“It’s not about her. It’s about you.” Candy jabbed him sharply in the chest. “I want to know exactly what you think you’re doing, no holds barred. Come into my office.” 

She gestured him in with her finger, leading him into a small room with a glass desk. There was a thin-screened computer built into it. It looked more high-tech than any model Mason had seen on the market before. The only personal item he could see was a framed photo of Old Man McGucket, Candy’s mentor in science. He’d passed away peacefully in his sleep a few years before.

“Sit.” 

Mason obeyed the harsh command and slumped down in the upholstered chair opposite Candy. He awkwardly spun around side to side on it a few times, aware of the slight tension between them. “So, the two of us working together again. We could certainly use your expertise. Of course there was that time you had that crush on me, not to mention the really awkward few dates we went on the year after that, ooh boy that was rough-“

Candy held up a hand which silenced him instantly. “Please Dipper, enough small talk. We both know you suck at it.” Her mouth crept up into a mischievous smile. “That’s why those dates were so awful, you have zero people skills. Plus it was clear even then you were already starting to take an interest in Pacifica.”

Mason let out a small chuckle, glad that Candy could see the funny side. Her laid-back smile vanished quickly though. “But that’s in the past. We’re here to talk about the future. This… portal…” She said the word with no small measure of dread.

“Yes. That’s why we’re here.” Mason said redundantly, feeling uncomfortable under her harsh gaze. Candy had always had a way of seeming oddly emotionless during conversations. “It’s strange to see the head of Chiu-tech working alone in a hole in the ground. I’d have thought you’d need more direct oversight over your products to run a multi-national company.”

Candy shrugged. “I like my privacy. It’s amazing what you can do online nowadays. Online dating especially is so much easier.” Mason blushed. He didn’t need to hear about that part. “I can run most of the company’s departments remotely via video call anyway, this castle has a high-speed connection paid for by a generous loan from Grenda and Marius. I keep a watchful eye over everything that goes on under my proverbial roof.”

Mason nodded. “Mabel’s always telling me how well-run Chiu-tech is. Low rates of accidents, good worker benefits, all that ethical environmental stuff. At first I thought that wasn’t too important, but recently… well…” He tried to find the words to explain without giving away too much. “Recently me and the girls have found out that a lot of your direct rivals are working against us. If they’re not run by our enemies, then they’re allies at least. Re-Gen Corp, a bunch of news organisations, that Japanese tech giant Fumetsu. It’s nice to know that at least one group is on our side.”

“Hmm, I see. That’s a lot to take in. I pride myself on keeping a tidy record. I can’t abide corruption; it gets in the way of true scientific pursuits.” Candy tapped on the glass desk. Mason marvelled at the glowing holographic keys she typed with, and images flashed up on the screen between them. He could still he see her face through the transparent glass. “This is what we need to talk about.”

He refocused his eyes on the screen and recognised what he was seeing. It was the technical layout for the portal that he’d sent to her in preparation. “Right yes. So I know the specs I sent you are pretty vague. At this point we’re still trying to fill in a lot of gaps and reconstruct based on memory and guesses. We don’t have the original blueprints to work off of.”

Candy dismissed this with a wave of her hand. “I don’t care about that. Your specifications may have been little more than an outline, but the theory is solid. Besides, I already have a strategy in mind for recovering the lost plans anyway. No, what I want to discuss is the reason behind all of this. I want to know _why_ you want my help to build this thing.”

Mason blew air out of his mouth. “Where to start?” He had to think. He’d already told Candy about Pacifica’s portents of the future in his contact letter. She knew the gist of the Society of Open Eye’s operations too. But even he still struggled with the why and wherefores of the portal construction. It was just something that felt like a mandate. Pacifica had such conviction that doing it was the right thing. He was behind her too, feeling that strange drive to follow in his Uncle’s footsteps. At times he felt less like Ford and more like Stan, trying to pick up the pieces and make the scraps of the past into something whole and workable.

“There’s a signal, extremely high-energy, out beyond most regular detection systems. It’s coming from outside our dimension, but predictions suggest it’s detectable all throughout the multiverse. We and the Society want to track it down and figure out what it is. Preferably before anyone else can find it first.”

“Hmm.” Candy left this to hang for a long time. 

Mason grew annoyed at the wait, wanting to know her full reaction. “Let me put it like this: We’ve gotta build this thing first, otherwise someone else is gonna beat us to it. We have to fight fire with fire.”

“Nonsense, the best solution would be a swift application of water, or perhaps to try to starve the fire of oxygen. Your solution would surely only exacerbate the problem. What, you intend to simply add _more_ fire?!”

“I think you’re missing the point, Cand.”

Candy slammed a fist down on the desk, making Mason jump at the sudden outburst. He was surprised she hadn’t smashed the glass. “No, I know exactly the point you’re trying to make. I’ve seen this before Dipper. A Pines, driven by vague dreams, trying to build an interdimensional portal and seeking out help from an engineer with greater technical skill to help them actually build the thing. If I remember right, that didn’t end up well for the engineer.” She tapped on the picture frame on her desk. “McGucket ended up a broken wreck, and that’s not even getting into all the lasting damage to the fabric of reality in Gravity Falls, or the terrible things that came through from the other side.”

Mason slammed his own fist on the table too, wincing slightly as he his hand on the tougher than expected glass. “This is exactly why we need your help! Ow, oof, that actually hurt quite a bit.” He shook his hand a few times, then carried on seriously. “You know the risks. With you helping oversee the construction, we can be sure that the portal will be much safer this time around.”

“Hmm, I don’t know Dipper. It’s still an awful risk.”

“Well too bad. I reckon that portal’s getting built no matter what happens. The Society of the Open Eye wants it for their ‘mission’, and Pacifica wants answers.” He changed his tone of voice, trying to make Candy see his argument sympathetically. “Me and Mabel want to help her too. If you don’t help us we’ll still try to make the portal, but it’ll take longer and probably be much less safe.” 

He sighed, wishing that she’d accept his plea for help. “Look, even though you and Grenda weren’t a part of the Zodiac you still saw the horrors of Weirdmageddon. That was all caused by the portal, think about what our enemies could do with that power!”

Candy’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, those enemies you mentioned before. Care to shed some light on who exactly they are?”

Mason stuck out his chin and tried to think of a succinct way to recap their recent encounters. “There’s this group – they’re pretty loose and disconnected – of people who can live past the normal parameters. Through various means they ‘survive’, preventing all death by natural causes. The only way they can die is by, say if you shot one with a gun, or stabbed one. What I’m trying to say is, they’re not ‘immortal’, they’re a-mortal. You get what I mean? Uh, Candy?”

As he’d been wrapped up in explaining things, he hadn’t noticed that Candy’s eyes had widened behind the frames of her glasses. “Eternal life… I think it’s time I showed you what I have planned with my experiment here.”

* * *

With everybody distracted by the arrival of the Pines and working on tonight’s experiment, nobody was watching when a small alarm went off on the internal security grid. It was quickly silenced, but the damage had been done. Entering through a small cutting directly through the rocky cliffs below the castle, a man dressed in furs checked to make sure he was unobserved.

There was a pressure sealed door at the end of the corridor. Trivial to bypass. He waved his hand out, and from the hefty belt of tools he wore around his waist multiple implements floated into the air before him. Focusing his mind on the door ahead, the tools independently got to work dismantling the locks, buzzing around the door like insects.

The man prided himself on his tools, each one handmade, and his advanced skill in manipulating them with his mind. A man’s tools were the extension of his body after all. In addition to his belt he wore a bandolier, allowing him to carry even more equipment for any technical challenge that presented itself.

The man’s original name had long been forgotten. He was simply the Tool Maker now. It consumed his identity wholly.

He flicked his hand and the tools all retreated back into their pouches. The pressure door whirred for a second, then fell off its hinges. A successful job. Now he was in. Now he could take a pawn off the board.

Pacifica observed the actions of Grenda and Andromeda from a distance. They were moving a lot of the heavy machinery. It turned out that this room contained a mechanism for turning the large radio antenna on the roof of the castle. Evidently, they were using it as some kind of lightning rod, so it had to be angled right when the storm reached its fruition. Andromeda was once again showing off her unlikely strength, lifting equipment twice as heavy as anything Grenda, despite her strong muscles, could carry. Mason had once told her that the clones like her and Quattro were stronger than normal humans, something to do with how densely their paper frames were packed.

Her mind was occupied by other thoughts, however. She had her Llama Journal open on her lap, turned to a page near the beginning. She was writing quick notes in the margins of an entry from over ten years ago. An entry about Andromeda.

Hers was a long and tragic story. Looking at her now you wouldn’t see anything but a bright, chirpy girl, eager to help out. But Pacifica knew her origins were much more troubled.

It had all started one day about 10 years ago, when Pacifica found Mabel in the basement of the Mystery Shack. She’d been using a powerful telepathic artefact, the Ursus stone, to relive memories as part of an attempt to come to terms with various recent events. In the course of trying to convince Mabel to leave, one of Ford’s old experiments, a body-switching carpet, fell on the two girls. While in Pacifica’s body, Mabel had used another old invention, a photocopier that could create replicas of living beings, creating a clone that mixed the two girls into one. 

Saddled with memories from both Pacifica and Mabel, the clone had felt an immense pain and lack of identity. Driven crazy by the desire to fix herself, she took the name Andromeda and turned against the trio, waging a campaign to try and steal Mabel’s body to end her pain. She’d also inherited frightening powers from the Ursus stone, allowing her to sense emotions and exert empathic control over weak minds.

In the end, the only solution to stop her had been to fully wipe her memory with McGucket’s gun. After that her pain was gone, but all memory of her past was lost as well. McGucket and Candy had taken over the task of making sure she never recovered those memories, lest her old personality resurface. 

Needing a place to stay, Pacifica had taken Andromeda to her parents. This had been during the middle of their last major falling out, after which Pacifica cut off the majority of contact. She entrusted Andromeda into their care. In a sense she was a replacement for the daughter they’d failed to raise properly. Pacifica knew at their age, and with their infertility issues, that they were unlikely to get another chance like that. And if they failed, they had the fear of the old Andromeda’s power and rage hanging over them.

Seeing the bubbly mirror image of herself helping Grenda seemed to suggest that they’d managed to pull it off. This time they hadn’t stamped out the enthusiasm and happiness as they had done when raising Pacifica herself. She wondered if she should give the two of them a call after this, if they really had turned a new page.

But right now she was focused on Andromeda. Seeing what was basically a copy of Mabel’s mind in her own 17-year old body was disconcerting. In so many ways they were similar, yet underneath she couldn’t have been more different. There didn’t seem to be a sarcastic or cynical bone in that girl’s paper body.

Pacifica was startled when Andromeda landed beside her on the lab bench. “Wooh, I’m pooped. This experiment better be worth it!”

She grinned at Pacifica, who tried to muster a weak smile. She knew that Andromeda was nothing to fear; she likely wouldn’t hurt a fly. Yet she couldn’t forget the monster she’d been, nor get over the fact of her appearance so easily. Then there was the extra layer with her parents that just made things awkward. She had to push these worries aside. Like Mabel had told her, she had to confront them head on or she’d never get over it.

“So Ann, how are things at home with you?”

“Oh, it’s so great. Mom and Dad have been so cool about this internship. At first I thought all the sciencey junk would be too much, but they kept supporting me. Working with Candy’s nice too, she and Fiddleford were always such good friends to me.”

“Uh huh.” Pacifica was still hung up on how casually Andromeda had mentioned her parents. They really had changed for the better. With how separate she’d wanted to be from them, she’d had few opportunities to meet up with Andromeda over the years. The clone hadn’t even come to her and Mason’s wedding – that would have raised far too many awkward questions with his parents, who were still ignorant of the magic and mystery sides of his life.

“What have you guys been up to? I bet touring the world’s been super fun!”

“Yeah, it was… nice, I suppose.” When the twins hadn’t been squabbling, or when they weren’t fleeing for their lives, at least.

“Come on, tell me the one thing you enjoyed most about your trip!”

“Heh, you sound just like Mabel. We had a nice time in Japan I s’pose. Met a new alien friend. Least I think she was a friend.” Andromeda grinned at her eager to learn more. After mentioning Zera though, Pacifica couldn’t help but feel unnerved by the outwardly friendly face in front of her. Would she someday return to the way she’d been before?

“You dyed your hair,” she pointed out absent-mindedly.

“Huh?” Andromeda took a strand and looked at it. “Yeah, it felt more natural brown than blonde. I don’t know why.”

“And the sweaters too.” She was definitely a copy of Mabel’s basic personality still. While staring she saw that Andromeda was wearing a silver necklace, not unlike her own Pine Tree pendant. It was in the shape of llama. “Hey, where’d you get that?”

“What, this? I don’t know, I just like llamas a lot.”

“So do I.”

“That’s awesome!” Andromeda clutched her hands. “Llama sisters! Ooh, I’d better go help Grenda, looks like the storm’s about to peak! BRB sis!” She ran off without a care in the world, leaving Pacifica with her thoughts.

Supposedly, after being memory wiped, Andromeda’s mind should only be a copy of Mabel’s. Yet her love for llamas had somehow seeped through the cracks and manifested. Was that a bad sign? Could more memories leak in and overtake her again? Or was she just being paranoid?

A cup of steaming coffee was thrust into her view. “Hey. Did you know this place has its own self-service coffee bar?” It was Mabel, smiling at her warmly. “Someone looks like she’s about to have a full-blown panic attack. Want a drink?”

“God, yes.” Pacifica gratefully took the beverage as Mabel sat beside her.

“Hi Annie!” She waved over at the clone whose mind she shared. Andromeda waved back, overjoyed to see yet another familiar face. “Weird seeing her again, isn’t it?” she said more quietly to Pacifica.

“Very. It’s like she’s a bizarre blended snapshot of the two of us. And she’s so innocent. Like a kid still.”

“It’s cause of the mind wipe, she had to start from scratch. Like Ivan did, before Wendy jogged his memory.”

“Except, we can’t jog her memory. We both know what’ll happen if she remembers.”

Mabel nodded solemnly. “I wonder if she still has those freaky empath powers or not. You remember, controlling all the vines and plants?”

“Yeah. I remember. Pretty hard to forget honestly.”

“Not for her,” Mabel joked.

“Not funny, Mabel. Not funny. I hope Candy knows what she’d doing, bringing her into all this.”

“She seems happy enough to help out. Look at her.” The two of them watched as Andromeda and Grenda attached a large gear onto the mechanism. The younger girl did indeed seem very pleased to have done it.

Pacifica smirked. “Well, at least she’s proof that my parents aren’t totally garbage human beings.”

Mabel slapped her on the back. “That’s the spirit!” However, as they observed, they saw the two others start to frown.

“Um, guys, a little help over here?” Grenda called out. She and Andromeda were examining the interior of the large turning mechanism. Sensing this was something serious, Mabel and Pacifica looked at each other quickly, then got up to join them. Grenda pointed inside, to where several gears were turning quite rapidly. At that rate the whole antenna would be into position in no time.

“What’s the problem?” Pacifica asked. “Everything looks like it’s working fine.”

“We haven’t turned the power on yet,” Grenda said. Both Pacifica and Mabel narrowed their brows in confusion. As one they turned to look at Andromeda. 

Under their gaze she seemed surprised. “What? What is it guys?”

“You don’t think…” Mabel whispered to Pacifica.

“That this is her doing somehow? The empath powers? That stuff only worked on living creatures though.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. But if it’s not her, then maybe… someone else?”

“What are you guys talking about?” Andromeda crossed her arms and pouted childishly, annoyed that she was being left out at this critical moment.

Pacifica tentatively skimmed through her journal before reassuring the clone. “We were just thinking, Andromeda, that maybe someone is influencing this machine remotely. Maybe it’s some kind of telepathic spell or something.”

The lights dimmed abruptly, casting shadows around the previously gleaming room. They all heard the sound of someone entering. “Oh my ladies, you don’t know the half of it.”

* * *

Mason and Candy were insulated from the dip in power as her private lab had its own source. She needed to be off the grid, so that her most essential work was free of any unexpected fluctuations. Mason looked around her workspace. Again, that lack of a personal touch. It was starting to remind himself of his own sparsely decorated home in New Jersey.

Candy had brought him here for a reason though. Her big experiment. In the centre of the lab, surrounded by banks of monitoring equipment and vats full of bubbling chemicals was a sheet-covered table. Mason reached out to lift it up but jerked his hand back when Candy snapped at him.

“Don’t touch that yet! Did you never hear about curiosity and what it did to the cat, Mason Pines?”

“Sorry,” he said guiltily. “What is all of this then? You sounded like you were working on something really big. What, is it some kind of new mech prototype?” He followed Candy around the table to where she was switching on a large monitor screen. “Or maybe it’s a hologram thingy? Something to do with magnets?”

The monitor flashed on, giving Mason quite a fright. “Howdy whippersnappers!” Mason was shocked by the voice that came out of the screen’s speakers. “Well looky here, a new user has been detected.” A pixelated digital rendition of Old Man McGucket’s face appeared on the monitor.

“What the heck is this?!” Mason looked to Candy for answers, but the screen responded first.

“McGucket snapshot partition, version 1.12! That’s a thousand terabytes of data held in a prismatic matrix and rendered in real-time, don’tcha know! Yeehaw!,” the AI added unnecessarily.

Mason looked at Candy, his eyes boggling. “Is this… a copy of McGucket’s brain?!”

“Well, yes.” She said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “A rather crude recreation, I must say. Most of his responses are rather generic. I took a brain print right before he died and uploaded it as best I could. Preserving all the nuances of a human brain onto disc isn’t a simple process.”

“But why!? What’s this all for?” Mason could barely comprehend the amounts of processing power that must be going into this copy of McGucket.

“It’s been a dream of mine for some years now. Ever since Fiddleford began getting more and more ill. I tried to have my researchers find a way to cure him via biological means, but those failed. So I turned to more esoteric methods. I turned to follow in his footsteps.”

“What do you mean?” He didn’t like the way she’d said that one bit.

“Behold.” Candy took the edge of the sheet covering the table and dramatically pulled it away.

Mason recoiled in shock, seeing a human body laid out before him. “Is that… McGucket?!” It was an uncanny replica of how the old man had looked when he was much younger. Out of morbid curiosity Mason reached over to touch the skin of the macabre body. Except, based on the texture, it wasn’t skin at all. “This body’s made of _paper_!”

“Indeed. A new construct I devised based on Stanford Pines’ amazing bio-copying device. The body is made of a synthesised paper-like substance, with a few key differences. It’s now much more water-resistant. I also tried to model the internal organs and brain more precisely.”

“You’re telling me you’ve _grown_ a new body? All on your own?”

“Grenda aided with some of the finer touches.” Mason struggled to imagine her bulky friend putting this body together so carefully. Grenda didn’t do nuance.

He was seeing the reasoning behind all this at last though. “So a new body, and McGucekt’s mind in a computer. You’re trying to clone him!”

Candy looked away, upset with his accusatory tone. “He was my mentor, Dipper. He taught me to appreciate science in a way no-one else could. A true pioneer in so many fields, just like your uncle, but forgotten in his time. I want his legacy to go on. And… I miss him.”

Mason nodded slowly, looking between the body and the computer. “Let me guess. You’re gonna transfer his consciousness with some kind of electron swap. Like the carpet.”

“Precisely. Do you remember that brief time I occupied your body?” Mason scrunched up his face, preferring not to remember that whole childish debacle. “That was a crazy day, but enlightening. This is the same principle. With a few tweaks to the MRE I’ve been able to ensure that this time the brain won’t be overloaded by the foreign memories as with Andromeda. I have her here for study as well.”

Mason knew that the MRE, or Memory Realignment Emitter to give the full name, was an advanced version of the same Memory Gun the Society of the Blind Eye had used to wipe people’s memories. It seemed Candy had finally put it to some positive use. Then Mason realised what she’d said about Andromeda.

“Wait, Ann’s here?” He wondered if Mabel and Pacifica had already run into her, and how they’d reacted to seeing the clone after so long. For them it must feel the same as when he’d met Quattro again in Russia.

“She’s working as an intern, assisting with a few of my projects. But I’m also using it as an opportunity to study her paper mental processes, as well as testing the empathic abilities she’s shown on occasion.”

“Your using her as a guinea pig?!” He almost didn’t care about the fact that Candy had confirmed that Andromeda still had some vestige of her empath powers. Right now he was more concerned with Candy’s actions. “You can’t do that to her, what if her old memories resurface?!”

“Relax Dipper, she doesn’t even know I’m testing her, it’s all very subtle.”

“That’s even worse! You didn’t even ask her permission!” Mason surprised himself with the depth of his anger at Candy’s callousness. He hadn’t cared that much for Andromeda back in the day – he’d always suspected something was off about her before the memory wipe – but Candy’s whole attitude had got on his nerves too much.

“You can complain to Chiu-tech’s ethics committee tomorrow if you’re so unhappy with my work. But tonight I need to focus; the storm has nearly built to its critical point. I need a large enough static charge to kickstart the transferral. As with the carpet it runs off static electricity, though this is a far more delicate process.”

“Using a lightning strike to bring a body to life, that doesn’t sound dangerous or risky _at all_!” Mason said, layering on sarcasm so thick you could cut it with a knife. “It doesn’t take a genius to see that this is a huge mistake.”

“This is my life’s work! Think about it for one second: full, clean mind transferral and new bodies. One need never die, simply moving from body to body as the old ones wear out. Yes, I want to bring back McGucket, but the benefits for society are even greater.”

Mason shook his head. “No. I’ve seen what happens when people keep on living for too long. The a-mortals we’ve met, they aren’t happy. Going on for so long, your priorities shift for the worse. Instead of working towards building a better world, all they care about is hoarding power for themselves. Not for its own sake, but because they’re petrified of losing their lives.”

He put his hands on Candy’s shoulders, fixing her with his gaze. “Death is natural, Candy. The old passes away leaving room for the new to thrive. Why bother thinking about tomorrow when it never comes?”

Candy was frowning now. “But it wouldn’t be as bad as that, surely? I want to make the world better, like May always says. To make McGucket proud!”

“Candy, McGucket’s gone. You can’t bring him back, not like this. How are you ever supposed to move out of his shadow if he’s still lingering over you? I was hung up on something similar for a long time. Pacifica and I…”

He swallowed, then decided to follow Mabel’s advice in not bottling it up. “We can’t have children. And we didn’t want to think about it. We buried ourselves in our work when we should have processed it properly. If you do the same with this, you’ll never move on.”

Candy looked over at the smiling image of McGucket on the screen, his happy expression and canned laughter looping over and over again. “He’d probably tell me the same thing…” She let out short laugh, then pulled the sheet back over the clone body. “I’m sorry Dipper. I’m still not fully convinced, but for you I’ll hold off on performing any experiments tonight.”

“Thank you. We can still work together though. I might not like this human cloning business, and you don’t like our portal plan. But you can help us make the portal safely, honour McGucket’s work in that way.” He held out his hand. “What do you say? Partners?”

Candy hesitated, and for a moment Mason wasn’t sure which way she’d decide. Then she gripped his hand and shook it briskly. “Partners.”

A weight taken off his shoulders, Mason pulled out Journal 7. “Alright, we’ve got so much to share with each other. I’ve got a speculative list of components, but if there’s any you think we should add we can-“

He stopped, hearing the door of the lab slide open behind him. Mabel came into the room, panting as if she’d run all the way here. “Guys, you need to come to the gear room, now!”

* * *

Mason quickly took in the large gear mechanisms but was more drawn to where everyone was huddled around. Grenda was tying a thick cable around an unconscious man wearing a thick fur coat and festooned with tools of all types.

As Grenda stood back, the man safely tied up, Mabel began excitedly rambling. “There were all these little parts flying about, like bolts and screws, then this guy showed up! He was controlling them with his mind or something! He threw a bunch of sharp tools at us. I couldn’t get a shot in cause he kept moving objects to block my line of sight. Then he tried to get in close to attack us – and Andromeda decked him with one single punch!”

The clone blushed, unused to accepting that kind of praise. Candy knelt over and adjusted her glasses to focus on the prone man. She noticed that his skull was oddly shaped, elongated slightly at the back and with a hefty forehead ridge. “How unusual. How did he breach the outer defences?”

“He used these.” Grenda was holding the man’s bandolier of extra tools. “Cut right through into one of the south tunnels.” She pulled out a sharp instrument with several prongs, like an advanced lockpick. It looked cobbled together and crude.

“May, wake him up,” Candy ordered, with what Mason recognised familiarity of someone used to this kind of situation. Mabel pulled out a tiny vial of smelling salts and wafted them under the man’s nose.

He coughed and spluttered into wakefulness. “Oh, mein Gott. What is going on?” He had a strong German accent. When he saw all the faces starting down at him he seemed to shrink, trying to push himself back against the wall. “Oh dear.”

Pacifica loudly addressed him. “Talk, creep! What are you doing here? Think you’re so tough? Well we beat you. So tell us who you are!” She stepped back to give him room to answer, noticing as she did that Andromeda looked slightly fearful. She inwardly kicked herself for acting so aggressive in front of her, she probably wasn’t used to such confrontational attitudes.

The intruder propped himself up. “I am the Tool Maker.” The group looked between themselves, but guessed he wasn’t going to give them more than that. “If you want to know why I’m here, it was simply to try and eliminate you,” he pointed at Candy, “before you could aid the Pines.”

“Wait, you know us?” Mason asked. “Hold on, the out of place furs, the unusual powers – You’re with the a-mortals, aren’t you!”

“Not just with them, my boy, I am the oldest of them all!”

Pacifica boggled at the idea. “So, you were, like, a caveman or something? The oldest living human!?”

He sneered at that. “Pah, I’m not _human_. A-mortal yes, but not one of you Homo Sapiens.” He spat the name dismissively. “I am what you would call a Neanderthal. The superior species, no doubt.”

“Woah, a real life Neanderthal!” Mabel said gleefully. “That’s so badass!”

“It is absolutely fascinating!” Candy said, looking over the Tool Maker with a newfound curiosity.

Mason waved a hand. “Eh, it’s nothing, I’ve met dinosaurs before, Neanderthals rank a lot lower on the geological timescale.”

“But still,” Candy continued, “a living specimen from so long ago. This is truly one of your enemies?” Mason, Mabel, and Pacifica all nodded. “He could teach us so much, about the origins of, say, linguistics, development of agriculture, the day-to-day lives of his people! Not to mention the facts of his extended lifespan, why surely-“

“You want to know how I feel, Liebchen?” The intruder had a glint in his eye, smiling up gregariously at Candy. She leant in, eager to learn more. But his smile dropped away in an instant. “We are all awaiting the end! The burning is coming, there is nothing you people, with your societies or your plans, can do to prevent it! All will perish, all will turn to dust!” Candy tried to pull away, uncomfortable with his words, but he gripped her with a bony hand and got in close. “I was the first maker of tools, thousands of years before the wheel and the fire! You are just the latest in a long line of pretenders! You cannot use your tools to circumvent the end. It is fated for all of us! All of us! All of us!”

The Tool Maker shouted into Candy’s face again and again, until the others pulled her out of his clutches. While they were all momentarily focused on making sure she was alright, the bandolier in Grenda’s hands started to move of its own accord; it too was just another one of his various tools brought to life. The devices lining its pockets flew out, causing the group to duck and scatter as a swarm of devices dove at them.

Sensing his window of escape had come, the Tool Maker moved with an unusual monkey-like gait, climbing up into the gears of the turning mechanism. Mabel fired up her grappling line, applying her parkour skills to try and follow. She had to stop as two of the gears clanged together in front of her. Had she been slightly closer her hand might have been crushed trying to pull herself up. The Tool Maker nimbly clambered up and out of sight. That mechanism ultimately led outside to the antenna.

“He’s gone.” Mabel sighed and climbed back down. “Sorry guys, he was too quick. At least he didn’t succeed. Everyone ok?” She looked around, checking that no-one was injured. Everyone seemed alright. Then she noticed Candy. She was looking into the distance, her glasses reflecting the light and blocking her eyes.

“Are you ok?” Mason had noticed Candy’s withdrawn state as well.

She adjusted her glasses, then looked at him. She was smiling fondly. “I think I now see the need for your portal, Mr Pines. Shall we make it official.” She offered out her hand. 

Mason shook it excitedly. “Thank you so much, you won’t regret this, I promise.”

“I hope not.” She said it seriously, but there was less doubt in her voice than before. She went over to Grenda and Andromeda. “Girls, get ready to pack your things! We’re going home.”

Privately the Pines trio shared a glance. They all knew that this meant. After travelling so far across the world, they were finally going to one place they longed to revisit the most. Where else to build a portal than where it all started?


	24. The Pit

Eight years. Eight years since Mason Pines had last visited Gravity Falls. Now, at the start of June 2028, he was finally returning to this place which meant so much to him. He’d found a family, had his mind expanded to the truth about magic and the supernatural, and met the love of his life, all in this town.

Driving the tree-lined roads, he felt an immense wave of nostalgia wash over him. Every little sight and sound held treasured memories; the resolute pines unchanged since he last took this path. He pulled into Gopher Road, audibly sighing with content when he saw the old Mystery Shack, still standing proudly at the centre of the clearing. 

In the last few months he’d travelled to places he never could have conceived of, braving all forms of transportation and experiencing stress like he’d never felt before. Now he’d finally come to a place where he was perfectly at home and secure, and he couldn’t have felt happier.

Against all his expectations (and a lot of admitted resistance from himself), he even had Mabel back in his life. She’d infrequently visited the town in the last few years, spending her summers here when Mason and Pacifica had been backpacking or honeymooning. But she too hadn’t spent nearly enough time walking in the forests or resting in the creaky building in front of them.

For Pacifica, stepping out of the pink mini, her feelings were more tempered. She’d grown up in this town, but her childhood was still a tricky topic to navigate. Too many sour experiences tinging her memories. But the sight of the shack had always felt like a sanctuary away from those troubles.

Standing side by side, the Pines trio were ready for another unforgettable summer in Gravity Falls. And they were far from being alone.

* * *

“Hey dudes, hate to be a buzzkill, but I’m not really sure about this.”

Mason and Mabel were sat in the Shack’s office. Opposite them behind the desk was one of the twins’ oldest friends, who happened to be the Shack’s owner, Soos. Dressed in a snazzy black suit and with Stan’s red fez on his head he certainly looked the part of a responsible manager. But he was currently far from pleased about the state of affairs.

“I’ve got a lot on my plate these days. Running this place is a full-time responsibility, and there’s my family to think about!”

Both twins felt like kids again, brought into this office expecting punishment for some childish misdemeanour. The stakes were a lot higher this time.

“We understand what you’re saying Soos,” Mason said. “We don’t want to do anything that hurts you guys. Getting Melody and the kids all wrapped up in our problems is the last thing that we want. But Gravity Falls is one of the few safe places we have left. The Society’s been covering up the town’s existence, so it makes a perfect spot to build the portal. Not to mention there’s a perfect space under the Shack to work in, as well abundant supplies of magical materials should they be necessary.”

“Plus,” Mabel added, “we kinda already told everyone to come here. Sorry.” She gave her most innocent shrug, hoping naively that it would be enough to sway her old friend.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Soos replied sternly.

They’d started showing up about a week ago. Arriving before the trio, Wendy and Eli had come bringing a lot of the larger portal components. Ivan was set to join them soon as well, bringing many of his Open Eye acolytes to help protect the Shack during construction. Wendy had already started strutting about like she owned the place, checking over every nook and cranny and making sure they had ample room to work.

Next to arrive were Candy, Grenda, and Andromeda Northwest, fresh from the Pines’ recent trip to Austria and ready to help out. Candy was busy at work intently on a project that would majorly affect the construction process for the portal.

The most recent new arrival was Quattro Alcor. His circus troupe had helped deliver the large dynamic coherence ring the trio had acquired in Russia, a vital centrepiece of the whole endeavour. To Soos’ immense relief the circus hadn’t stuck around. The Shack was crowded enough as it was without adding a bunch of rivals to his own business.

Now with the Pines’ arrival things were reaching a bursting point. All this and there were still more visitors due who had longer journeys, so hadn’t yet arrived.

“Guys, I don’t know if I can keep running this place while all your stuff is going on. It’ll disrupt all the tourists. I can’t run tours with half the Shack occupied. I have to think about the bottom line- Ah!” Soos screamed out in fear. A massive snake had slithered into the office. 

“Oh, Apep!” Mabel said cheerily. “I brought her along, she was getting lonely.” Mason looked at his sister disapprovingly. “What! I couldn’t spend all summer away from my precious little baby, could I Apep? Could I?” She cooed and stroked the snake.

Meanwhile Soos’ hand was on his chest, breathing frantically. He lifted his fez and wiped the sweat off his brow. “See, this is what I’m talking about. It’s bad enough when it’s just your pet, what happens if this place comes under attack again, or your experiments blow the place up!?”

“We’ll try to minimise any risky activities,” Mason said, still glaring at Mabel, who stuck her tongue out at him. “Anything dangerous will stay in the basement, we promise. Other than foraging for some supplies we can keep everything contained down there, just like Ford used to do.”

This seemed to sway Soos at last, who softened his expression ever so slightly. “Well, you two dudes have always had my back I guess. I’ll see how things go at first, maybe it won’t be too different with all of you around. I’ll have to tell Lee and Stan Jr to stay above ground.”

“Thank you thank you thank you, Soos!” Mabel leapt up to hug him, completely forgetting the snake in her arms. Soos squirmed as it was pressed right up in his face. “This is gonna be the best summer ever!”

* * *

At the back of the clearing out behind the Mystery Shack a flurry of activity was going on. Grenda was finishing putting together a segmented metal ring around a dark hole in the ground. Cables led from the ring, connecting it to a chunky laptop sitting on a crate. Candy was calibrating the laptop, making sure their setup would work safely. Several other stacks of computer parts were placed around the clearing, each one providing additional processing power to the system.

Slotting the last piece into the ring, Grenda grabbed her water bottle to cool off from working in the summer heat. “Phew, all done. Why are we building this out here anyway? Aren’t we supposed to be keeping things in the basement?”

“This is a special assignment.” Candy typed a command into the laptop and went over to the deep hole. “Incredible, I can only make out the wall for a few metres, then it’s pitch-black below.” She returned to the laptop, checking the monitoring equipment to see whether they’d detected the target yet. The display showed a rough map, with three traces clustered together near the base, still apparently falling.

“Do you think we should tell Wendy?” Grenda asked, a slight worry creeping into her voice. With how she’d been lately, ensuring on tight security on anyone coming and going in the Shack, and acting more like a warden than an old friend, it put everyone on edge.

Candy ignored the concern, however. “If her Society has an issue with my work, I’m sure they’ll know what we’re up to. ‘Open Eye’, and all that.” She tapped the enter key on the laptop, generating energy to flow from the ring, covering the hole in the ground. The clear platform provided a solid footing on which to stand above the pit.

“There, the safety shield’s fully operational. Now we only need our willing participants. It's a two-man job."

"Or a two-woman job!" A beaming Mabel was strolling towards the pit with Pacifica in tow. Both girls looked prepared for the mission.

Pacifica jabbed a finger at her eager companion and tried to explain. "She's a thrill seeker, and I figured I might as well tag along, get some stories to tell my grandchildren. Not that I'll be having any grandchildren- let's just get this over with."

She stepped onto the energy shield, jumping up and down a few times to be sure it wouldn’t break. Mabel collected a pair of backpacks covered in technical equipment. One for each of them.

Having assured herself of the platform’s durability, Pacifica addressed Candy. “So, this is the Journal retrieval mission, right?”

Candy nodded and spun the laptop around so both girls could have a look. “This is an infographic showing their location.” She tapped her finger by the traces. “16 years ago Stanford Pines believed this was a safe method of disposing of his three research journals.”

“Why didn’t he just burn the damn things if they were so dangerous?” Pacifica asked.

Mabel was the one to answer. “Because Grunkle Ford loved those books, even if they caused some pretty nasty things. Look on the bright side, now we have a chance to get them back.”

“I’m surprised Dipper didn’t elect to come on this mission, given his fondness for the books,” Candy said.

Pacifica jerked her thumb out into the trees. “He’s taking the kids to scavenge parts from another site in the woods. Besides,” she smirked, “this way I can give him those journals as an early birthday present.”

“I see. Well he’s missing out on an important experiment.” Candy checked her laptop again. Since Mabel and Pacifica had stepped onto the energy shield, it had measured their mass; she needed to feed that information into the programme now. “Without those books we have no complete original blueprints for the portal. All we have are a few basic overview blueprints from McGucket’s files and some incomplete photocopies from Journal 3. We need the books if we’re to have any chance of completing the project. That means going down there.”

She pointed at the gaping space beneath their feet. Pacifica looked at it curiously. “What is this hole then? How deep does it go?”

“Ooh, I know that one!” Mabel raised her hand as if asking permission to tell the story. “We, my friend, are standing above the Bottomless Pit. It goes on forever and ever and ever!”

“You can’t be serious?”

“Yuh-huh, me and Dipper fell in once.” Pacifica gaped at her incredulously, like she was making the whole thing up. Mabel made a wide gesture with her hand, swooping it downwards before shooting it back up. “It loops, sometimes things that go in get rejected, or maybe it’s random. Other times things go missing. Poof, gone who knows where.”

Candy nodded. “Indeed, it’s some kind of möbius strip wormhole. Only in Gravity Falls could you find something like this just sitting out in the open. Grenda, can you start up the generator please?”

“Can do, Candy!” The bulky girl pulled a draw string on a portable red generator wired up to all the computers. There was a satisfying chug as it came to life. “I hope you two haven’t eaten anything lately. This is going to be a wild ride.”

Pacifica crossed her arms and looked at the ring encompassing the rim of the pit. “Yeah, I was gonna ask. How exactly are we going to get the books back, when they were dropped in years ago? Wouldn’t they have already got where they’re going by now?”

“That’s the beauty of this device!” Candy said proudly. “Since when we build the portal there are certain… well, ‘obstacles’ between us and full access to the other side, we need some way of circumventing those. This is a prototype accelerator. In principle it will move your bodies close to the speed of light. Accounting for standard terminal velocity and the fact that the pit is functionally, as Mabel said, bottomless, by speeding the pair of you up, you can ‘catch up’ with the books.”

Pacifica seemed to want take issue with the plan at first, before rolling her eyes. “Why not. Makes about as much sense as anything else we do. Might as well get it over with.” Mabel side-eyed her after saying that, trying to guess her odd mood. Pacifica wasn’t feeling like being read, so turned to avoid her friend’s gaze.

Mabel nonetheless gave a thumbs up to Candy and Grenda, who’d come to stand over by the laptop. Candy started the operating procedure, causing the ring to give off a crackle of energy. “Alright, if you’re ready. Now, we haven’t designed the full survival suits for multiversal traversal yet, but based on your own prior experiences, Mabel, as well a few sensors I dropped in, the conditions aren’t hostile. The atmosphere down there is breathable, pressure levels remain consistent with the surface, and there seems to be no worry about colliding with anything en route.”

Grenda pointed at the heavy backpacks. “These contain a buncha sensors and detectors. Basically if anything goes wrong, they’ll let us up top know about it. This is why we need to send two people, so in case one of the packs fails you won’t get stranded. You can also use them to signal us once you’ve grabbed the books. Got it?”

Pacifica and Mabel nodded, then tensed themselves for the expected falling sensation. Candy hunched over the laptop in preparation, her hand hovering over the space bar. “Ok, 5, 4, 3…”

Neither of them heard the end of the countdown as they were suddenly dragged down into the floor. It was less like falling and more like being sucked into quicksand at an incredibly fast rate. The pace increased until they were hurtling down the pit, bullets fired down the barrel of gun.

* * *

Mason stopped for a moment to rest his foot on a log. He breathed deeply, and the fresh forest air filled his lungs. With the glorious sunshine shimmering through the leaves, the forest floor was brightly illuminated. Every winding path through the woods could lead to some new mystery, some new discovery. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.

He called back down the path. “Come on guys, we’re nearly there!” Out of the trees came Quattro. Instead of his formal tuxedo that he’d worn when they’d met at the circus in Russia, the young clone was now wearing a carbon copy of what Mason used to normally wear when he’d been 12: a sleeveless jacket over a red t-shirt with shorts. However, instead of the old pine tree baseball cap, he had a red cap with the symbol from Stan’s fez printed on it, a link to his current role in following his Grunkle’s footsteps.

“Hey Dipper. Man, I can’t tell you how weird it is being home after so long. These woods feel so familiar.”

“Ah, I know what you mean bud.”

Quattro was about as experienced as Mason at hiking, having spent several years hiding out in these very forests with his brother Tracey. As a clone of Mason, Quattro shared many of the same likes and dislikes. This was definitely one aspect that had carried over to the paper clone verbatim.

Their other walking companion however was much less adept at this activity. Grumbling as she came into view, Andromeda – Pacifica and Mabel’s hybrid clone – stopped for a rest. Mason looked her over enquiringly.

Though her dyed brown hair was in a long ponytail, a decently practical choice for adventuring, she definitely wasn’t dressed for outdoors activity. Her purple wool sweater had snagged on several branches already. She’d even decided to wear _high heels_ on this expedition. She was such an odd blur of his sister and his wife, ending up somewhat lacking in common sense at times.

“Are we nearly there, Mason … I mean Dipper… wait, I don’t know which name sounds right?” She scrunched up her face, deep in thought for a few seconds, before forgetting about it and marching forwards on her way. Scatter-brained was putting it lightly. Mason often wondered how it must feel to have a mind with so many fragmented memories tumbling around.

“It’s not far now, Ann. Quattro, you remember this path, right?”

“I think so. Does this have something to do with-“

“I’ll explain to Andromeda once we get there.” He winked at the clone, who had an understanding with his older ‘brother’. They both shared a memory of this particular location, so Quattro knew exactly what significance it held. He ran on ahead while Mason looked for Andromeda. He saw she was heading off down the wrong path. “Ahem!” He gestured towards the correct route.

She looked, saw her mistake, and changed direction without a word. She did so haughtily, as if acknowledging the mistake was beneath her. It was a very ‘Pacifica’ action, though he wondered if classifying Andromeda so rigidly was helpful or not. “Are you ok? We can go slower if you’re tired.”

“I’m fine.” She held her head high and carried on.

Mason coughed into his fist. “Wrong way again.”

“Oh.” This time Andromeda blew a raspberry at him and seemed to take it in her stride.

Mason put his arm round her shoulders to guide her. “You’ll get the hang of exploring eventually. You must have spent some time in the woods, living in Gravity Falls for all these years.”

“I guess, but I like to spend most of my time indoors. I’m missing out on so much knitting time!”

“Ha, you and Mabel should do a sweater swap sometime. Don’t worry though, it’s not far to the spot. Think positive; we’re not too deep into the woods, you’re with friends, the sun is shining.”

He succeeded in raising a small smile from the clone. It reminded him of Pacifica’s happier smiles. He self-consciously loosened his grip on her shoulder slightly – he had to remind himself that she was half-Mabel after all, it wouldn’t do him much good to be weirdly attracted to Andromeda that way.

At least he was right about both clones being grateful of the sunny weather. He’d rarely seen them so carefree outdoors, since they both had an intense aversion to water. If it had been raining they’d melt within minutes out in the open. Quattro had already suffered that pain – several ‘burn’ marks on his face were actually the after-effects of being hit by a garden sprinkler.

Candy had been working on a pill that could temporarily stabilise their paper forms – a side-effect of her research into her aborted McGucket clone plans – that would hopefully allow them greater freedom. Today the sun was their protector, keeping both clones safe and dry.

Mason halted in a small anonymous spot beside a fallen moss covered log that Quattro was sitting on. He knew they were at the right spot. “Alright Andromeda, we’re here.”

“What is this place? Doesn’t look like anything special to me.” She spun around on her heels goofily. “Yep, just more boring trees.”

“Looks can be deceiving sis- uh, I mean, uh, cousin? Nevermind.” He shook his head. “The point is, this spot may not look like much, but it’s one of the most important locations in my entire life.”

“In all our lives.” Quattro added.

Mason took a pen from his pocket and started tapping each nearby tree in turn. Andromeda was confused, until one of the trees resounded with a metal clang when he tapped it. Mason brushed a clump of moss and dust away from the trunk, then opened a concealed panel.

Andromeda rushed forwards to look at the small square device inside. It was some kind of old machine, with circular dials and two toggle switches on top. Mason flicked one, then there was a hiss from behind. A hatch in the forest floor had slid open. Andromeda peered into the square opening, but it was empty.

“This is where my life changed forever.” Mason pulled out Journal 7 from his jacket. “This is my latest journal; you’ve all seen me writing in it. Can’t get enough of it. But the first time I ever stumbled upon a journal it was in that hole in the ground.”

“Journal 3.” Quattro said momentously.

“That’s right. Andromeda, you won’t know about it, but finding that journal had a knock-on effect. Without it I’d never have found out about magic or cryptids or the mysteries of the town.” The clone took in his words silently, with a look of awe. “Without it, my Grunkle Ford wouldn’t have returned through the portal. Without that spark that got me interested in adventuring, neither of you guys would probably have been created.”

Andromeda ran a hand over the empty space where the journal had laid hidden for 30 years, as if some of the effect it had had on Mason’s life could somehow brush off. “Wow, that’s so cool.”

“Also,” Mason added, blushing slightly, “finding that book was why I became an investigator in the paranormal. If it wasn’t for that, I’d have never helped Paz exorcise her family’s ghost. It was that night I first saw a different side to her. And thanks to that I eventually fell in love with her.”

“That’s adorable!” Andromeda leapt up and gripped him a tight hug. “You two are such a cute couple, this is like the ground zero of your relationship.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Mason said, struggling to breathe. “This is a lot stronger than Mabel’s usual hugs!”

“Ooh, sorry!” She dropped him to the forest floor. “Sometimes I forget my own strength.”

“Oh right, the extra dense paper muscles. Anyway, enough reminiscing, we’re here for more than just that tiny vault. There’s a hidden bunker beneath this tree.” He tapped at the metal hatch carved into the wood once more. 

He turned to Quattro expecting him to be as interested in this secret of the Falls as Andromeda had been at his retelling of the journal finding. However, the young clone had a more pensive expression. Mason realised he was probably thinking about all the missed opportunities he’d had in life, since splitting off from him that night of the party at the shack. Mysteries he could have solved that Mason had instead. A life not lived the way it should have.

Sensing an opportunity to raise his spirits, Mason called over to Quattro. “Hey Quat, wanna see if you can find the hidden entrance on your own?”

Shaken out of his reverie, Quattro beamed with pride at being allowed to take the lead. He started looking up and down the tree, then played around the toggle switches. All he achieved was to reseal the journal hatch.

Beside him, Andromeda was running a hand along the bark. Only a small section had been cut open to make the hollow for the device, the rest was still natural wood. “Maybe you should try looking for more weird stuff on the outside. There’s something else here that feels… _unnatural_.” Andromeda closed her eyes as her hand moved in circles over the bark

Mason studied this curious action. Perhaps, he surmised, it was something to do with her latent empathic powers. She was reaching out and communing with the tree, feeling the abnormal metal aspects grafted on.

“Hey, look up there!” Quattro was pointing up at the tree’s high branches. “The bark around that branch looks slightly different to the rest.”

“Full marks guys!” Mason clapped at their keen judgement. “I won’t make you try and climb up there. Mabel let me borrow this.” He pulled out her grapple gauntlet. Without bothering to slip it onto his wrist, he shot a line up and hooked around the fake branch. “I’ll let you two do the honours.”

The clones grabbed onto the rope and yanked hard. The branch up ahead clicked into place, then they heard a distant grinding of gears. They all quickly jumped back as the ground around the tree shook and descended into the earth. With the tree deep in a circular pit, wooden slats suddenly shot out from the dirt, forming a simple staircase. Finally a tall section of the bark slid upwards to reveal another staircase, this one made of stone, leading down into darkness.

“I think that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Quattro breathlessly intoned. “Woah!”

Andromeda had picked him up and set him up on her shoulders in a piggyback. “Yeah! Mystery team! Woo! Clones! Clones! Clones!”

“Ha ha, yeah! Clones!” The two of them set off down the staircase, cheering and laughing at their success. Mason wryly chuckled and shook his head. It was all so familiar to him, that fantastic rush of excitement at teasing out the mysteries of Gravity Falls. He pulled in the grapple line and tucked away Mabel’s gauntlet, then followed the clones, with their weird echo of his own Mystery Trio, into the bunker.

* * *

Flying down into the pit, Pacifica quickly lost sight of the earthen walls. She glanced up, seeing the pinprick of daylight fast receding. In milliseconds she was in pitch-darkness. The sensation as she fell was uncomfortable, rather like being on a rollercoaster that was above her preferred tolerance. She wasn’t simply free-falling, there was a force pushing her ever onwards.

Eventually the acceleration began to slow. Once they reached the proper velocity to catch up with the journals, the force acting on her body would disappear completely. With few external stimuli, her mind was a blank. She imagined it was akin to being in a sensory deprivation tank. She actually started to enjoy the feeling, relaxing her tensed muscles.

“Whoo-ee! That was fun!” 

Oh right, she remembered. She wasn’t alone. 

Mabel pulled a cord on her backpack, lighting a bright orange flare so they could see each other through the gloom. She spun around a few times effortlessly in the air. All that grappling around gave her an intuitive feel for the weightlessness. “Whee! Enjoying yourself Paz?”

“It’s tolerable, I guess.”

“Aw, lighten up will ya! No more stressful running around the world, just peace and quiet in a dank endless pit together.”

“Yay, my perfect idea of a great day out,” Pacifica replied dryly. She tried to peace out again, but the nagging feeling of being watched kept her from relaxing. Her hair was also becoming a distraction, flowing upwards annoyingly against the pull of gravity.

“So,” Mabel said in a slightly exaggerated way, “Soos and Melody’s kids are so cute these days!” She had all the subtly of a sledgehammer. 

“I hadn’t noticed.”

Mabel frowned, clearly having hoped for a different reaction or something more from her friend. “I mean, it’s cool having young people running around the Shack, makes it feel lived in like back in the day when me’n Dipper first visited.”

“I know what you want to talk about, Mabel. Just spit it out already and say it.”

“What- talk about- me? Pshaww, this is just a friendly conversation, I don’t have an ulterior motive – nope.” Her eyes shifted all over the place.

Pacifica crossed her arms and tried to look as dignified as she could while twisting and turning constantly in space. “You know, bringing up another couple who had kids? That kinda burns. Not cool sis.”

Mabel immediately looked blindsided. “Argh, no, I didn’t mean- I’m so sorry. Gah, idiot.” She hit her forehead, sounding genuinely remorseful.

Pacifica breathed out, unable to hold a grudge. “Look Mabel, you have to think before you speak sometimes, ok? You can’t just pry all the time when you wanna talk about personal stuff.” She was a lot like Mason in that regard. When she was set a task like infiltrating a base or fighting a monster she could pull it off with flawless confidence but try and hold a frank conversation and she’d turn into a bubbly mess.

“Besides. Me and Mason, we put all that ‘not having kids’ stuff behind us. It’s not an issue anymore.”

“But-“

Pacifica gritted her teeth. “Not. An. Issue. That’s final.” An uncomfortable silence hung between them. Pacifica looked down, wondering if she could see anything below. Nothing but the endless dark.

“I’m sorry, ok!” Mabel punctured the silence. “I didn’t want to upset you, really. But you made that joke about it when were on the surface, I thought maybe you were more open to talking about it.”

Pacifica sighed, seeing no way out of this. “I don’t know. I didn’t think about it for so long… sometimes I don’t know how to feel. It’s bad, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not ‘all-consuming’ like it once was. That make sense?”

“I think so.” Mabel nodded, glad that Pacifica had opened up, even if only a little.

“Now,” Pacifica begged, “can we talk about something else, please?”

“Sure thing Paz!” Like that the subject was dropped. Mabel might be nosy, but at least she knew when to pull back and not press the issue. “We could talk about this pit. Isn’t it crazy? We must’ve fallen a few miles already!”

“Doesn’t feel any different though. I can’t tell any distance. We could be cycling through the same bit over and over again and we’d never know. When you and Mason fell down here, what did you do to pass the time before being vomited back up top?”

“Basically we just told stories to each other for 22 minutes.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sounds gripping.” Pacifica tried fishing for another conversation starter, then looked up towards the now completely invisible opening at the top of the pit. “At least we’re safe, like you said. The a-mortals won’t find us anymore.”

“And if they do, the Black Hole’s on our side now!”

“Yeah, still not 100% sure of that. I know Wendy and her Society are all about building the portal, but what happens when we’re done? When they try and spread the information or do something rash with the technology?”

“We have to trust in her, she’s our friend.” Mabel sounded hurt by the accusations against Wendy, but Pacifica didn’t stop.

“Like the time we trusted her, and she stabbed us in the back? When she was hunting us day and night?” Mabel squirmed, unable to come up with answers. “Eli was your friend too, do you trust him again yet?”

“No,” She said, defeated. “I need to have a long chat with him one of these days. Won’t do to let things sit, I need to resolve it. But I meant what I said, they’ll keep us safe in the Falls. We’ve already put so much trust in them already.”

“I know. It makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I miss when it was the three of us, taking things in our own hands. Don’t you have any other allies you can call in?”

“Well, some are already on their way, but I do have some higher-up contacts. I’m pretty sure I’m still on President Vazquez’s good side.”

“What the hell?!” Pacifica stammered. “The president?!”

“Yeah, her daughter is a huge fan of mine! She even came to one of my protests to get an autograph from the fabled May Pines.” Mabel flashed an elfin grin. Pacifica couldn’t tell whether she was teasing her or not. With Mabel it was often hard to tell the difference.

“Of course. Well as long as national law enforcement doesn’t break down the door of the Shack looking for you, I think we’ll be ok.” Having run to the end of that conversation topic as well, Pacifica was left with Mabel making annoying clicking noises with her mouth to fill the void. “Urge to kill: Rising again,” she said playfully.

“I’m so boooooooored though!” Mabel flipped in the air as she said that but stopped after three. “Oof, no, not doing that anymore. Not unless I wanna vom. Wait, am I seeing things cause I’m dizzy, or is that…”

Pacifica jerked her head downwards, following Mabel’s gaze. Through the darkness down beneath she could finally see something new, quickly rising up to meet them. She could make out red covers, with golden hands glinting in the centres. “The journals!”

Mabel positioned herself vertically to speed her descent and catch up with the books faster. “Wow, it’s really weird seeing them again.” For Mabel, those books represented a lot of varying emotions: For Journal 3, the thrill of adventuring with her brother; Journal 2, Gideon’s campaign against her family; and Journal 1, representing all the secrets Stan and Ford kept from her before Weirdmageddon. 

Overall though, she was happy to see the books. Those few sour memories couldn’t overwhelm the immense joy they’d spurred in her life. “You know what else is weird? They look just how I remember!”

Mabel was right. Despite being tossed down here all the way back in 2012, they were exactly the same as they’d been back then. The three books hovered rather eerily in the air, as if they’d been frozen in amber down here for 15 years, static, unchanging. 

Pacifica quickly gathered the books up in her arms before they overtook them. “Mission accomplished.” She turned around to flick the recall switch on her pack.

“Hey Paz? We’re cool about that whole ‘prying into your personal life’ thingy, right?” Mabel stared at her hopefully. The guilt must have still been playing on her mind. Pacifica knew what that was like, to have that feeling of shame stuck on a loop in one’s thoughts.

She held out her hand for Mabel to fistbump. “We’re cool, sister.”

Mabel cheerfully reciprocated, then made an explosion noise. Pacifica laughed for a moment, then felt her stomach lurch as their fall was suddenly halted. Reversing direction, the two girls shot back up out of the pit, carrying the treasured books in tow.

* * *

Mason and the two paper clones passed swiftly through the entry control room of Ford and McGucket’s old survival bunker. They stopped only to briefly check over the supply crates, marking two to take back on their way out. They’d need a lot of food on their trip, and the preserved tins of beans Ford had stockpiled would do the job.

They didn’t need to worry much about the weight of the items they scavenged, since Andromeda and Quattro’s supernatural strength meant they could carry much more than an average human. That was part of why Mason had chosen to bring them today, though there was another reason as well.

He let the clones go ahead of him through the hatch to the security room. He crawled after them, trying to study their emotions. Both of them were excited to be out on a ‘real adventure’ for once. Mason wanted to use this as an opportunity to get a sense of what kind of reactions they’d have, and whether their nature as clones would have an effect.

After all, neither clone had been meant to last this long. Quattro had been made to be used for one night only, while Andromeda hadn’t even been needed for that long. Yet both had endured against the odds. He wanted to know what that could that do to their psyche, knowing they were initially supposed to be disposable copies.

He also couldn’t avoid the uncomfortable comparison to the a-mortals. These two functionally didn’t age, left as frozen copies of their creators. Quattro would never grow beyond 12 years old, and Mason needed to know if that applied to his mind as well. He’d shown signs of growth, overcoming his obsession with Wendy. Bringing him to this place, the very bunker in which Mason had dealt with his own crush on the redhead seemed like a suitable place to observe the clones in action.

Entering the security room, with its walls and floor made up of metal square panels, he called for the clones to halt. “Hey guys, watch your step. We don’t want to trigger the crusher trap.”

“_Crusher_ trap?!” Quattro said in a panic. Once again Mason was struck by how inexperienced he was with this kind of fear. He’d long since overcome those simple worries, but Quattro had never gone through the same events.

Carefully stepping around the pressure-sensitive panels that would activate Ford’s overly paranoid death trap defence, he found the four symbols that when pressed would unlock the main part of the bunker.

The bunker door swung open, allowing the three of them to pass on with much less terrified running than the last time Mason had been here. The surveillance room was another area that hadn’t changed much. In a way it was a perfect choice to bring the clones along, since they could experience it exactly the same way he did originally.

“Wow, what is this place?” Andromeda started pressing buttons on the control panel, just as Mabel had done when she came down here.

“It’s looks like some kind of monitoring station.” Quattro had noticed the walls of reel-to-reel tape recorders and camera setup, that was used to observe the bunker and its surroundings. 

Mason gestured towards a central part of the control panel, where a screen showed two upright cryogenic tubes. “Grunkle Ford and McGucket were super concerned with keeping their research a secret back in the day. They built this place as, I don’t know, a backup in case something went wrong with their main portal lab at the Shack. They even had a cryogenics system setup, in case they needed to outlast whatever catastrophe might arise from their work.”

He was about to switch the freezing mechanism on and off to demonstrate, then thought better of it. The shapeshifter he’d encountered on his previous visit was likely still encased in the ice. He would prefer if this time their expedition didn’t involve any life-threatening battles. He already had one copy of himself to deal with as it was, he didn’t need another.

“Anyway, the equipment we need is in the main lab, through here.” He pulled open the door that led to the disinfection shower, then onwards the central space of the bunker. “Ah, wait.” He held the clones back before they went through, checking over some of the readings on the control panel. “Ok, it’s safe. There’s an overhead shower nozzle to clean off before entering, I made sure it’s offline this time. Wouldn’t want to accidentally melt you guys.”

Quattro paled slightly at the thought, but Andromeda was already bounding into the next room as fast as her heels could carry her. Staring up at the roof of the tiny airlock the whole time, Quattro followed.

He took in the main laboratory with a sense of wonder. Carved out of the bare earth, the cavern held rows of cryo tubes. A few of them were still functional and online, showing glimpses of their icy innards. Huge pipes connecting to the surface brought in fresh water and an air supply.

“What are these?” Quattro was pointing at the numerous gaping holes in the cave wall that led off to a honeycomb of passages.

“That’s a crazy story, I can tell you. I’ll fill you in once we’re back on the surface, but to summarise, it basically involved a very overactive pet of Ford’s. Aha, here’s what we came for.” Beside the remnants of both a torn open steel cage and a smashed cryo tube were a pair of large tape reels. Mason prised them off the computer they were attached to and checked each one over. “Hmm, looks like Reel 1 has decayed too much. The tape’s mostly disintegrated. Reel 2 might be alright.”

“That’s what we came for? Film reels?”

“These contain some of the results of the early portal tests. Calibration information, readings from the other side, stuff like that. There are probably some spare parts down here too, we’ll do a sweep then head back out.”

He tossed the reel over to Quattro, who held like a sacred relic. “I can’t believe I’m finally seeing the Author’s secrets up close, in person!”

“I know the feeling.” Mason looked around the lab. Besides the cryo tubes there wasn’t much else. He’d been hoping for more direct portal-related equipment, but the data they’d retrieved would have to do. He turned to leave the bunker, satisfied that their visit down here wasn’t a complete waste.

With Quattro clutching the data reel close to his chest, Mason remembered that Andromeda was down here too. He spotted her over by one of the active cryo tubes. She seemed to be intently interested in one of them for some reason, peering through the glass. “What have you found there Ann?”

She wiped her hand over the glass to clear the condensation and get a clearer glimpse. “I think I’ve found… you.”

Confused, Mason had a look inside the tube. “Oh, of course. Man, it still looks freaky.” Behind the glass was a face, contorted in fear and frozen in a silent scream. The face was a mirror image of Mason’s own. He knew that it was just the shapeshifter, morphed into that visage as a last-ditch attempt to strike fear into him before it’d been locked away in the ice. They were lucky that none of the freezing equipment had broken down in the intervening years.

“What is it?” Quattro also peered inside, then gasped. “No, it can’t be!”

“Quattro?” The clone had dropped the film reel and had started backing away. “Hey, buddy, it’s ok, I know it looks kinda scary, but-“

“That’s one of my brothers! How many more have you kept locked away down here?!”

“Woah, that’s not…” Mason tried to reach out and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but Quattro batted it away and continued to walk back. He looked both terrified and disgusted at Mason. “I promise Quattro, it’s not what it looks like!”

“You destroyed them before! You sprayed the other clones with water and destroyed my brothers! I can’t- I’ve got to get away!”

Hyperventilating, Quattro sprinted off down one of the many side passages dug out years ago by the shapeshifter. “Come back!” Mason called out but it was too late. He wanted to chase after the young clone and explain, but Andromeda was still looking at the frozen face of the shapeshifter. “Ann, are you ok? You’re not gonna run off too, are you?”

She shook her head. She was no longer looking into the tube, instead she was staring off into the distance. “I’ve seen that expression before somewhere. I have a memory of that exact scream, that haunting last gasp. But made of wood, not ice.”

Mason nodded, realising what she must mean. On the night of the Northwest Party, when he like all the other guests had been turned to wood by the ghost, he recalled making a similar face. This was one of Pacifica’s memories, leaking through subconsciously into Andromeda’s mind.

“Is this really another clone?” Andromeda wasn’t scared, more honestly curious. Cloned from a 17 year old, an older source than Quattro, she had greater awareness that there was often nuance in these situations. She was trying to get the full picture before reacting.

“It’s not, this is a shapeshifter. Look, I’ll explain everything, but I have to go find Quattro. Stay here and don’t wander off.”

Mason ran off after his clone, chastising himself for not thinking about how he’d react to seeing a trapped copy of himself. Quattro had spent years alone with nobody but another one of the clones, Tracey, as a companion. No wonder he’d been triggered by the sight of that face in pain. 

And it was true – Mason had been forced to destroy several other clones to save himself in the past. He regretted having had to do that now, but at the time he’d had no choice. He hoped he could still salvage things with the only clone he had left.

The caves were a rabbit-warren of winding pathways, excavated over 30 years by the rogue shapeshifter, Ford’s one-time ‘pet’. He knew at least that none of these tunnels led back to the surface – the creature had been trapped down here the entire time by a layer of bedrock – so Quattro couldn’t get too lost down here.

He called out the clone’s name and heard it echo around and round and back again. There was the slight noise of footsteps in the distance, but the acoustics down here made it too hard to pinpoint. He cupped his mouth and called out louder. “Quattro! I wanna talk! You don’t have to be afraid!”

“Stay away from me!” The voice reverberated back to him. This time it was clear enough for Mason to figure out where it was coming from. He climbed into a tunnel with a slight incline upwards. He judged that it would probably put him roughly parallel to the surveillance room.

He rounded a sharp corner, then halted quickly. Quattro was sat further down the tunnel, curled up in a ball. “I remember what the journal said.” His voice was quiet but sure of itself. “It said ‘trust no one’. Did you forget that? I didn’t, and you proved it right.”

Mason was stung by the words, even as he knew Quattro was wrong about him. It seemed there were some aspects of his younger self that Quattro had never shaken. In Mason’s full life, he’d learnt so much more than that simple lesson from the journal. Quattro had never had the chance to move beyond it.

Mason came to sit beside the clone, like some strange older brother giving him comfort, a sibling relationship he’d never known before. Quattro flinched, but didn’t run again. “I can explain everything Quattro. That wasn’t one of your brothers back there. But first I need to tell you right this second that ‘trust no one’ – well that’s plain wrong.”

Quattro looked up at him at last, confused and searching for answers. Luckily Mason was ready to give him the understanding he needed.

“When I took that mantra to heart, things never ended well. Whenever me and Mabel have ended up splitting apart or arguing, it’s because we didn’t trust in each other. If Grunkle Ford had been more trusting of Stan, then maybe the whole portal fiasco never would have ended so badly for them. Hell, if I hadn’t trusted Pacifica to have my back when fighting a murderous ghost… well you get the idea.”

He had an idea and pulled out his own journal. He pointed at the cover. “’Journal 7’ means more than it happens to be the current book. Every journal is an improvement over the last. This one contains all my life-experiences up to today; things that I didn’t realise back then.” He handed the book to Quattro. “Maybe if you’re still not sure, have a read, ok?”

Quattro looked at the book, lost for words, then hugged it close to his chest. Mason was surprised when he snuggled up closer. “Thank you Dipper.”

Mason saw that the clone was almost on the verge of tears, so bad had been the shock of seeing the frozen scream and having his faith shaken. “Hey, it’s ok little buddy. Come here.” He wrapped him in a hug, something he usually left to Mabel, but he felt that Quattro needed it. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”

Quattro buried his head in Mason’s shoulder, weeping openly now. Mason had the urge to hold him tighter, as if simply hugging him would keep him safe forever. Rather than a brother, he felt distinctly more like a parent in that moment. That thought instantly made him feel terrible. He knew that was never going to happen, however much he wished it.

“Aw, you guys made up! That’s sweet.” Andromeda had ignored his instruction and followed them here. Not that it mattered, there was no danger, but he was annoyed nonetheless. Watching over these kids was a responsibility he needed to bear. 

He really was starting to act like a dad, he thought ruefully to himself before crushing the notion. Shortly thereafter he was physically crushed when Andromeda tightened her grip around both of them. “Awkward sibling group hug!”

“Ah, ah, Andromeda, remember what we talked about with the hugging! Not so strong!”

“Oops, yeah. Silly old me.” She released Mason and Quattro, who both breathed sighs of relief on being released. They chuckled together, still a bit awkward. Quattro wiped his face, then smiled once more.

“Hey, Dipper. Since I have the journal now, does that mean I get to be the one in charge for once?”

“Huh? Oh, I guess.” He crossed his arms, grinning at Quattro’s improved mood. “What’s your first move then, oh wise Author of the Journal?”

“I think…” He made the appearance of thinking for a moment, before handing the book back to Mason. “I think we should go outside and enjoy the sunshine together.”


	25. The Present

_ Mabel’s scrapbook-stravaganza 2028! _

_Wow, I never expected to find this book. I was helping move the beds around in the attic, we pushed the two next to each so that Dip and Paz could sleep together. This book must have been wedged between my bed and the wall, cause it fell out when Dipper was messing around with his weak arms trying to shove the bed over._

_Whatever, I think it’s definitely a good time to start writing in it again, so much is going on at the moment that needs recording!_

_Ever since we got the journals back from the pit, Dipper, Candy, and Wendy have been poring over them. For the first time they get to actually look at the blueprints for the portal. Now that we have that, they say construction should take a month or two. There’s a lot to do in the meantime as well though; we have to figure out what to do once we’re on the other side, we have to pack supplies, and we’ve also gotta be sure no-one on the outside finds out about everything we’re doing._

_But enough about that boring work stuff! Just to be home in Gravity Falls is amazing. Every creak of the Shack floorboards, every crunch of leaves and roots under my feet, every time I see everyone sitting together watching tv. It’s like we never left._

_Although, we are a little on the crowded side since everyone arrived last week…_

* * *

It had only been a week and already Mabel was feeling antsy. She knew she should relax, that this was home, Gravity Falls, and that this was totally normal. But another part of her wanted to get moving again, irrational as that was. She’d spent so many years moving around, ready to leave a place at the drop of a hat whenever some new calling took her fancy. Her recent trip with Mason and Pacifica around the world had only stoked that drive.

So it was a test of will to get used to sticking around for any length of time in one place. At least, as places went, this was probably the best she could have chosen. Her home away from home.

While the others toiled on the early plans for the portal, she had no kind of ability in that field. She could assist with the assembly, but technical design was beyond her. Instead, she was helping Soos and Melody run the Mystery Shack. It was like being a teenager again.

Currently she had her feet propped up on the main desk by the cash register, watching the gift shop while Soos ran a tour around the museum. With Mabel covering this job, Melody was restocking souvenirs. Like Soos she’d been reluctant at first with the idea of building the portal right under her floorboards. Over the past week as things had begun to settle down again she’d gotten used to all her guests. It was sort of like the many sleepovers Mabel had organised. Except constant, day in day out, for the foreseeable future.

Mabel wasn’t really focused on the job. It was enough just to be back in this environment again, soaking up the memories. To pass the time, she was reading Paz’s book of Greek myths again, this time with a more critical eye. Thanks to Wendy’s prompting she now saw the parallels to the a-mortals much more clearly. Perhaps some of these bold tales, of gods and monsters, were just exaggerated retellings of events the a-mortals wanted to be remembered.

There was a sudden hum of energy that shook the Shack, followed by a loud smash. Melody had dropped one of the snowglobes she’d been stacking. “Dammit, not again.” She grabbed a broom and angrily tapped the wooden handle against the floor. “Some of us are trying to work up here! Sheesh.”

She shook her head and swept up the shards of broken glass. Mabel put down her book, removing her glasses. She always hated to have to wear them, but without them the words on the page would be a blurry mess. “Sorry Melody, I know the guys’ experiments have caused a lot of difficulties. Be thankful they haven’t turned off the gravity completely yet, heh.”

“It’s alright.” Melody had regained her composure. “We can handle things as they are. I wish they wouldn’t work at night though. It’s been hard sleeping with all the noise. But yeah, you folks are practically family, of course we’ll help.”

“Aw, thanks Mel.” Mabel was touched by Melody’s enduring trust in them. Saving her from killer robots and computer programmes 16 years before had left a lasting impression. She’d always been grateful to the twins for helping set her up with Soos. “You know what, I’m gonna try my best to keep things as peaceful as possible for you guys!”

Melody smiled appreciatively, glad that there was someone paying a consideration to the interruption in their lives.

The promised peace didn’t last long however, as the window behind her suddenly smashed open. Something had been lobbed violently through the glass, sending shards flying. The beeping object rolled across the gift shop floor.

“Get down!” Mabel screamed, and leapt beneath the counter, her glasses falling off in the chaos. A second later the object exploded in a burst of smoke. Melody coughed, unable to see through the thick cloud. Mabel heard raised voices and the Shack door being kicked open. As the smoke cleared, Mabel fumbled for her glasses, then stuck her head over the counter.

She rolled her eyes when she saw a rifle being pointed at her. Armed soldiers in camo gear had surrounded the room. They must have come in from every entrance. A terrified Melody had her hands in the air. She was shaking.

The soldier aiming at Mabel gestured for her to stand. “Levántate!”

“Ok ok, relajarse.” She scowled at the soldier, who seemed to recognise her tone of voice.

“May Pinos?”

“Si, si.” Rolling her eyes, she spoke to the mercenaries. “Alto el fuego, hold your fire. We’re all friends here. Got it?” She glared at each soldier in turn, who guiltily lowered their weapons under her gaze like a group of naughty children.

Two more soldiers marched in through the front door, standing to attention on either side. An older man, the leader of the soldiers, entered smoking a cigar. “Ey! This is your Uncle’s Shack, May? This pile of garbage?”

“Uncle Rico!” Mabel said, hands on hips and annoyed with the man’s conduct. “You can’t use military tactics in here, this isn’t a combat situation. You’ve frightened poor Melody half to death!”

“I’m alright, Mabel.” Melody’s racing heart was slowing down. “Who are these people?!”

“These are my bros! The Hombres Caiman, I called them in for defence purposes. They’ve come all the way from Colombia.” She hugged two of the soldiers, who grimaced, not used to this kind of domestic situation. Uncle Rico barked a command in Spanish and some of the troopers started moving out.

“You though that bringing in _Colombian Mercenaries_ was a good idea!?” Melody started sweeping up the glass from the broken window, as if seeking some kind of normality to occupy herself after the intrusion.

Her brief attempt to get things back in order were quickly derailed, however. A strong gust of wind swirled around the gift shop. The soldiers all trained their guns at the centre of the disturbance, but Mabel shouted at them again. “False alarm, false alarm! Nobody shoot, I was expecting this too. Lower your damn guns.”

The wind coalesced into a column which burst into a flame. Forming out of the inferno was a man in long robes. with a skull painted on his face. Bokamoso Potgieter, infamous shaman of Johannesburg, had arrived, gesturing wildly. “Out, out brief candle! Greetings and salutations!”

The fire faded away and the wind blew most of it out. Some stray flames were still spreading along the wooden floor and Melody quickly grabbed her broom to pat them out before the whole place burned down.

Bokamoso seemed surprised to have arrived in a room with so many armed men standing about. He turned to take in his new surroundings, then flashed a toothy grin at Mabel. “Ah, I got the right tourist trap this time. Hey zombie, what cheer?”

“Uh, hi Bo. Nice trick with the fire, you’ll have to teach that one to me sometime.” Bo gave a dramatic bow. Actors, Mabel thought. In a way all of Bo’s flashy magic wasn’t unlike Gideon’s old stage persona, to wow and distract the onlooker with a display of spectacle. Only this magic was real.

“Who are your friends?” Bo squirmed uncomfortably around the Hombres. He tapped the nearest rifle, trying to lower it out of his face.

Rico waved at him and said a dry, “Hola. I take it you are the ‘magic man’ my niece has been telling me all about. The one with the freaky extra eye.” He said that in a tone like he was hoping to see Bokamoso’s unique peculiarity there and then, but the shaman kept a blank look and simply crossed his arms.

Mabel put a hand on both of their shoulders. “Hey, play nice. We’re all friends under this roof. Why don’t you all check downstairs with my brother and I’ll… Melody, are you ok?”

She’d managed to put out the small fires but was shaking like a leaf. “It’s one thing after another, armed men, fire magicians! If I could just have a moment’s peace to-“ 

“Novus Ordo Seclorum!” The ominous sound of deep chanting came from the Shack’s entrance. “Novus Ordo Seclorum. Et oculi aperti sapit. Nova quoniam mox aperientur oculi.” 

“I spoke too soon,” Melody groaned.

As the Latin chant continued, men in green robes began walking into the gift shop. Some were even swinging incense burners. The itchy trigger fingers of the Hombres Caiman once again caused them to aim their guns at the newcomers.

Mabel raised an eyebrow at them as she went to confront the arriving acolytes. “Really guys? Take a chill pill.” She stood expectantly by the doorway, arms crossed and brow set. The sea of dark green parted to reveal the pale bald head of the Society of the Open Eye’s leader.

“Nice chanting as usual boys, keep it up!”

“Ivan.” Mabel shook her head. “You had to pick now to show up.”

“Ah, May Pines, hello. I see we’re not the first visitors to arrive.”

“No. Not by a long shot.” All over the gift shop the robed Open Eye acolytes were sneering at the Caiman troopers, who looked back with disdain. It was clear as the two factions mingled that sorting this mess out was going to take some time. Bokamoso stood off in the corner, eyes shifting all around to take in the chaos.

And in the middle of it all was Melody, who’d long since abandoned any hope of salvaging her gift shop. All she could do now was let it turn into an impromptu gathering place for her new ‘house guests’.

* * *

_Yeah, it’s super packed around here now. You can barely move in this place. I’m lucky in that I don’t have to share a room. The Hombres are all camping out in tents outside, while the Society’s acolytes have claimed the main museum space as their own. I think they like sleeping with all the kooky mystery stuff around them._

_I’m not actually sure where Bokamoso sleeps. One time I caught him climbing up to the roof at 3am, said he was doing ‘astrological harmonising’. Maybe he was just homesick and wanted to stargaze? Dip and Paz have done that a few times too, they love to sit together and be all gooey and love-dovey._

_With so many people squeezed in, Soos is having a lot of trouble keeping us out of the way of his customers. Trying to make breakfast while two dozen soldiers, a cadre of paper clones and scientists, and several bona-fide cultists are all fighting over who gets to use the toaster is something else. Don’t even get me started on the shower. _

__

__

_ Pacifica takes **forever** in there._

_Still, at least construction on the portal should go a lot faster now with all these extra hands to help out. I’ll also feel a lot safer if the a-mortals find us and attack. They’ll have to get through a lot of trained soldiers and devoted cultists before they even come close to the portal!_

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_Today Dipper sent me on an expedition into gnome country. Said he needed some minerals they know about. Something magnetic I think._

_Wasn’t keen on dealing with the little trolls. They’re still as gross as ever, but at least they don’t want me as their queen anymore. Probably cause I could dropkick them out of state if they so much as looked at me wrong, ha._

_I traded them some ‘golden elf hair’ (a few strands he snagged off Pacifica’s pillow, lol) and they left for a few minutes. When they came back they had the stuff. Don’t know where from but I don’t ask questions. Easy enough job I guess, Dip knows where my talents are suited at least, he knows I’m no good with the science stuff._

_I just hope I’m not the one he picks to steal the toxic waste we need to power the final stages though._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_I asked Dipper today what he was working on, and he said he was trying to pinpoint the source of the weird signal the Society detected. The one that’s the cause of all this portal building in the first place. It was kinda complicated, so I wrote it down exactly as he said it:_

_ <s>The correct calculations for detecting the abnormal signal</s> _

_Tcs nlqqsnt nphnuhptdlkr alq estsntdkb tcs piklqjph rdbkph qshdsr lk vpqdlur adsher la oupktuj jsncpkdnr pke tcs kswhy tcslqdrse Epqrg-Vdgqpj cymltcsrdr. Tl rtdjuhpts tcs tpncylkr qsoudqse, lks jurt adqrt skruqs tcpt qspedkbr pqs nphdiqptse alq klk-Jdkglwrgd rmpnstdjs… ihpc ihpc… dj ilqse klw… dhh furt bst edmmsq tl wqdts dt elwk dk auhh hptsq…_

_Dipper made me stop and rewrite that whole section in code, just in case. Yeah bro, like someone’s gonna steal a _scrapbook_ to find the key to interdimensional travel._

_(The key’s ‘Pines’, cause I’m lazy and I’ll forget if I don’t write it down)_

* * *

A few weeks into the summer, Mabel decided to check on the portal’s construction. She tapped the long-memorised secret code into the vending machine, which swung out of her way. Inside was the elevator to the basement levels and Ford’s study. Some time ago he’d marked the elevator door with red spray-paint, drawing a Blind Eye symbol as a warning to keep out. The things kept down there weren’t meant to be tampered with.

She moved past it, taking the elevator down to the bottom level. The large cavern, with walls of bare earth, was beginning to resemble the way it looked when she’d first come down here, minutes before the portal had activated and brought Ford home. Ever since his return this place had been used as a storeroom for his dangerous inventions, stacked up high with crates.

Now it was finally cleared again, with all of Ford’s equipment either stripped for parts or put out of the way. There was a rush of construction ongoing currently. Scaffolding had been put up all around a triangular metal frame against the far wall. Wendy, in her Black Hole mask, was using a blowtorch to weld pieces into place, pieces that would eventually be covered up when the front panelling was installed. Crews of men from the Hombres Caiman were carrying long beams across the cavern and leaning them up next to the portal where they’d be needed most.

A miniature crane had even been set up, and with Candy at the controls it lowered a heavy strut down for Grenda and Andromeda to bolt into place along the top side of the portal. It was amazing to see all their work finally coming together. She noticed several components, like the cylindrical radiation transmission spreader she’d stolen in Seattle or the gleaming sun crystal, already wired into place in the network of circuity.

However, she’d come down here for more than just to see how the assembly was going. She’d wanted to see someone in particular, but it seemed he was busy up on the high scaffolding. At the moment he was using a noisy drill to fix one of the circular energy output regulators on the cavern ceiling. Even if she called out, which she wasn’t going to with everyone else around, he was wearing headphones so as not to be deafened by the drill.

She turned to leave, slightly disappointed that she’d failed to speak to her intended target, but happy to see things were progressing. As she went to go, she noticed someone she’d overlooked.

Sitting at the control panel in the small observation room and separated by a glass screen from the rest of the busy workers, Mason was cursing under his breath. He was holding a pair of goggles over his eyes with one hand and trying to solder a small circuit board with the other. She heard him swear and drop the board.

Then he saw her watching. “Oh, Mabel, didn’t see you there. I imagine you’re a lot better at this delicate work than me.”

Mabel took the soldering iron and span it in her hands to show off her greater dexterity. “All that arts and crafts paid off.” She quickly took the board and the tiny capacitor he’d been trying to attach and completed the soldering job.

“Thanks a lot, I really am awful at all this technical stuff. You wouldn’t catch me dead trying carry one of those support struts either.” He flexed his arm as if to demonstrate his limited strength.

“What are you doing down here then? I mean, I just came for a look, but if anyone deserves a rest it’s us three. Us and Pacifica started all this, we did all the hard work. We could do with a break for once.” She leaned against the control console, only slightly joking about what she’d said. It would be nice to not have to worry once this was all over.

Mason slid open the compartment on the desk beside the console. Inside was a small bookcase. He slid the first book out and placed it down on the desk. It was his own Journal 7; with the golden star-patterned cover she’d made for him forming the Big Dipper sign.

He turned the book approximately to the middle. The double page spread wasn’t formatted like his usually entries, with some sketch of a monster or artefact. There was no obvious English text at all on the page. The main focus of the page was a large dot, with two straight lines leading away from it at 90 degrees to each other. It was like an L-shape, if rotated clockwise so it cornered off the bottom right of the page.

Dotted around the odd lines were fragments of mathematical formulae, scribbled notations, and sections of coded writings. A vague itch in the back of Mabel’s mind began stirring. What Mason brought out next only exacerbated that feeling.

He once again reached into the shelf and brought out another book, the same size and shape as Journal 7. Then, Mabel realised, it had the exact same _cover_ as Journal 7 too, only with a golden 8 inscribed on the front.

“What the hey-hey? Where’d you get this?!”

He set Journal 8, she supposed, next to 7, then pulled out another book. And another. Mabel’s eyes widened further with each journal he placed on desk, each one with an identical cover to Journal 7. In total he brought out six books alongside the original, ending with a journal labelled as number 13.

Seeing her reaction of naked confusion, Mason answered her. “Let me explain. Ok, first of all, I finished working on the Calculations for our portal journey. I pinpointed the general coordinates we’d need to narrow down, that part of our plan is all complete. But I realised I needed to write my working down somewhere. I decided that keeping all the information in one journal, A) wasn’t feasible because there was too much info to cram in, and B) would be a security risk.”

He tapped a few more books that still rested on the bookshelf. Mabel could see these books had red spines. “Oh, of course! Like Ford did with Journals 1,2, and 3. He split up the portal design so that it could be hidden.”

“Exactly, I’ve done the same with these books. Of course, it turned out that I needed a lot more space than I anticipated. Hence the six new journals.” He flipped each book open to their corresponding page near the middle. They all had matching shapes that lined up, with information flowing from one page to the next seamlessly. The odd lines emanating from the circle that Mabel had marked as important also matched up. With the whole plan in front of her, she saw that it formed Ursa Major, with each book having one of the seven stars of the constellation at its centrepiece.

“Dip, this is… kinda weird actually. Are you feeling what I’m feeling? That tingle on the back of your neck like this is all familiar.” She picked up one of the books and closed it to examine the cover. The book she’d chosen was Journal number 9.

“Ah, I wondered when you’d figure it out. Temporal inertia, fascinating.”

“Ugh, I hate when you’re like this. Just tell me what’s going on, nerd. I remember this book now, the cover, everything.” She idly flipped through the pages, all of which beside the Calculations page were still blank. “I do remember now. This is the journal that we found, the one from the future, with Merak and the Council.”

It was like a floodgate had opened in her mind. They had found Journal 9, years ago. It had proved both helpful to have future foreknowledge, and incredibly dangerous. The world had nearly ended because of this book. Or, will nearly end because of this book, when it would someday get sent back in time.

“Why… why didn’t I realise before? I should’ve seen it with the cover.”

“That’s temporal inertia. Like I said, we encountered this book in the past, it changed events. Once we moved on from that, history tried to put things back on track. Our memories subconsciously suppressed the relevance of those events. We still remember all that happened with the Ursus, if we want to, or it becomes relevant. But in our day-to-day lives it’s compartmentalised. See?” He was grinning more than Mabel was used to. “It’s amazing, I can’t believe I get to test a hypothesis so directly!”

“It makes my head hurt.” She put the journal down. “Ok, one final question. How exactly did you get your hands on all these journals?” She pointed at the pile of discarded and burnt circuit boards. “As we both know, you don’t know how to do squat with your hands, let along bookbinding. And designing that cover was no slouch either! Do you know how much glitter it took to get the stars to shimmer right?”

Mason rubbed the back of his neck. “I kinda cheated. Wendy was clearing out some of Ford’s old stuff, moving it to the bunker in the woods. I might have used one before she shipped it out. For once, I actually used the photocopier to copy paper again!”

“You used a machine that can clone living matter to make yourself more journal space?!” She chuckled and shook her head. “Only you Dipper, only you.”

He started closing each book and slotting them back onto the shelf. “Candy’s helped out with these too. Since they’re a lot smaller and less complex than a live clone she was able to stabilise the internal structure. Now they’re immune to being destroyed by water. Permanently! Well, as permanent as normal paper that is, the pages’ll still ruin if you dropped them in a lake or something.”

“Why? Are you expecting to take them all out on an adventure sometime soon?”

“I’m working on copying my notes into each one actually. Since we now have seven journals, plus Ford’s trilogy, I’m gonna make books 8-13 into ‘best of’ editions.” He enthusiastically rambled and waved his hands about as he laid out the plan. “First I’m gonna add an index to each book showing where the original entries are found. Then I’ll put in all the most important entries from Ford and our histories into these new books, then I’ll split them up. When we’re in the multiverse it’ll help if most of our teams have their own journal to reference. Like, one for Wendy, one for Bokamoso, and so on. Pacifica already has her own Llama Journal of course.”

He opened Journal 8 before putting it back with the others. “Look, I’ve already started on this one.” Mabel flipped through the pages. Mason’s writing looked like it had been written a lot faster than the usual care he put into each one. The info was shorter, in a quick-to-read format, and skipping the less important creatures they’d run into. 

“That sounds like a lot of work bro. How come you didn’t just photocopy all the pages over too?”

Mason looked like he’d been slapped in the face. “Oh, goddammit! I’m an idiot!”

Mabel chuckled at her brother’s obliviousness and was about to head back upstairs when she heard a clatter from the portal room. 

“No no no!” One of the struts being moved into place seemed to have slipped, falling out of place and colliding with the catwalk. Now Wendy was wildly gesturing at Grenda. She seemed to be very angry. Mabel strained to hear what she was saying through the wall. “…could’ve knocked out half the structure if it had given way! This is why we all need to be fully aware, 24/7! Got that!” She glared at all the workers who’d stopped to eavesdrop. “Back to work people, no delays! We get this portal done soon or not at all.”

She slipped the Black Hole helmet back on and returned to silently welding by the base of the portal. She didn’t seem to care about the angry looks most people gave her out of the corner of their eyes. In a few moments the busy work atmosphere was back in full swing, but Mabel couldn’t shake the feeling of it being wrong somehow.

“Hey, Dipper? You think Wendy’s been acting really off”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s been so mean lately. She keeps trying to tell us what to do and boss everyone around! In that armour she’s really intimidating too. Strutting about and keeping us in line like we’re just cogs in a machine.”

“Authoritarian,” Mason said casually, not looking up from the journal as he studied over the pages he’d already wasted hours working on for no reason. “That’s the word you’re looking for.”

Mabel peered again through the glass. Maybe she’d need to have a chat with Wendy about how she was acting. After she finally got around to speaking to the first person she needed to. He was still drilling away, ignorant of the debate that had just taken place. She was worried he’d be just as uptight as his fellow Society member.

* * *

_Pacifica’s been working on our ’survival suits’. We need to have flexible suits we can wear in any environment, who knows what the multiverse will throw at us. I think she’s enjoying the design work. It’s a lot closer to her old fashion designing days, before she moved to architecture. I’m sure she’ll come up with something stylish, yet practical._

_Candy’s gonna build a prototype once she’s done, then we’ll all wear the suits during our journey. I wonder how long we’ll be gone. I hope it doesn’t take 8 months like our last trip. It’ll be something new though: travelling off our little world and journeying into so much more craziness._

_Ford was in there for 30 years and he managed to survive all that time. We’re a lot more prepared than he was; his trip was an accident after all. We know some of what we’re expecting on the other side and we have a whole team rather than just one guy. Ivan’s been helping to work on the portal’s containment fields as well. So no more radiation leaks or damage to space-time. No rift situations this time._

_Still, I’m nervous. Things could always surprise on the other side. If something goes wrong in transit that might be even worse. We could all end up mushed together or colliding with something on the other side due to a translation error. Or we might arrive in a dimension where the laws of physics don’t work right, and all the atoms in our body might fall apart! Or-_

_No. I won’t think about that kind of thing. Worrying won’t help. I trust in Dipper and the others’ Calculations. Pacifica’s suits will keep us safe, they have to._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_Bokamoso’s really starting to love it here. Pacifica wanted to go out into the woods, reconnect with her heritage, that kind of thing. Bo was interested in seeing more of the supernatural side of the valley, so she let him tag along. They did quite a wide circuit, they were gone for a good 4 hours._

_The old Pacifica would have never been seen dead traipsing around in the mud for hours on end. How times have changed, she loves it now. Bo wasn’t as used to the hiking, but from what Paz told me he didn’t care. He was too wrapped up in all the amazing sights Pacifica showed him. To see all the magical creatures, I think for him it was like finding a home he’d never had._

_Poor guy with his third eye, he’d been a loner all his life. Now he finally saw that he wasn’t alone, that there were other beings like him. Pacifica took him all over, to the lake, to some of the caves, the floating cliffs, then finally up to Crash Site Omega where she could show him that great view over the whole town._

_Apparently Bo wouldn’t stop chewing her ear off on the hike back to the Shack, kept raving about the whole place. She said he called it ‘truly magical’ approximately 40 times :P_

_Pacifica was a little more pensive when she got back though. I pressed her on it, since it wasn’t like her to withdraw. Turns out they passed through town to get a snack on the way back, but they passed her parents’ house. It’s not like seeing the manor, she’s come to terms with that and you can hardly miss it up on the hill anyway. No, this was more personal. They’re still living there in town. I don’t think she’s interacted with them in years, not since her wedding at least._

_Must be weird though, especially hearing Andromeda talk about them so positively. I don’t think Paz can forget all the awful stuff they did so easily. Having them right on the doorstep must be hard to bear. Hopefully someday she can figure something out. Maybe they can all reconcile like I did with Dipper, but I don’t think it’ll be that easy. Her parents hurt her in so many ways. Sometimes we can’t ever forgive that sort of thing, we can only move on and try to build our lives up again._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_I keep seeing him_

_Why is this so hard_

_I can talk to Wendy, why not_

_Just say it May, this is worse than some high-school crush_

_Apep’s still comfortable around him, maybe I should trust her animal instinct. Though Waddles and Pacifica never got along, so I don’t know if I can go with that wholeheartedly._

_ASDBXGHOESAJOS WHY CAN’T I SPEAK_

* * *

Light streamed through the stained-glass window into Mabel’s bedroom. She rolled over on the converted sofa and groaned. It was too early to get up. This was Grunkle Ford’s old room, and he, being super nerd 101, had calibrated the window to shine in light at the optimum time in the morning for ‘doing science’. That usually meant 7am, far too early for her liking.

Mabel really needed to buy some curtains. She missed her old bed in the attic, but Pacifica had never been big on ‘sharing’, especially since she’d got married. Those two should learn to loosen up, it would be like a perpetual sleepover!

Alas, things were the way they were. Still, it was better than the alternative: not speaking to each other for years on end and living an entire continent apart. Things had changed back for the better and it had only taken months of cramped travel and life or death situations. If only she’d known it would be that easy.

There were some relationships in her life that were still fractured, however. Every day Soos and Melody became more and more withdrawn, trying desperately to cling to the normal order of things. It was hard with all the work being undertaken constantly, and Mabel didn’t like to see them drift away slowly.

She thought also of her parents, only a few hours away in California. It was a distance that had once felt much greater, a stark line dividing the joys of summer from mundanity at home. Although the physical distance was a simple journey to surmount these days, far more separated them beyond pure miles. Her mother and father were still totally ignorant of magic or portals, and only had a passing knowledge of her ‘political activities’. There was a gulf that sadly would probably never be truly healed.

Of course, she still needed to confront the person she was most unsure of where she stood with regard to. As fate would have it, this dilemma was about to resolve itself.

The door to her room creaked open, like every door in this crumbling old wreck of a building. It did mean that they made handy alarms if someone tried to creep inside – as with right now. She sat up in bed, propped up on her arms. She wanted to crawl back under her covers when she saw who it was.

“Eli? Really? I’m trying to catch some sleep here!”

Her old high-school friend blushed awkwardly. Though she was dressed in a tank top, Mabel guessed he still felt indecent barging in. “Sorry May, I’ll only be a second.” He strode past her and picked up a small glass pyramid that had been gathering dust on a shelf. “We need this prism to focus some of the rays from the sun crystal. This was Stanford Pines’, wasn’t’ it?”

“I guess, he left a lot of junk lying around this place.” Her frosty tone was an invitation for him to leave, though he didn’t seem to get the message.

“It’s truly inspiring working in the same place he did his formative research. Just to hold his journals, let alone read them…”

Mabel scrunched up her face. “You sound obsessed. Oh right, I forgot. You’re a freaky cultist.”

“It’s not like that.” Eli pouted like a lost puppy. “I thought we were allies again.”

“I’m still not happy with the whole arrangement. You lied to me. You lied to everyone.” She gave a hollow laugh. “I shoulda realised when you ‘just happened to bump into me’ in Reno that something was up.”

“Yet I remember how happy you were at the time. You were lonely before that.”

“But it’s still creepy. I wanted a friend and there you were. How convenient,” she spat.

Eli breathed out heavily. He set the glass prism down on a desk by the door, then sat at the foot of her bed. “I know you want to talk, May. You keep trying to find a moment, then never actually say anything. I’ve seen the way you avoid me when I’m not alone.”

“I- it’s not like that.” Now she was the one who was under the spotlight. It was true, she’d been hoping for a chance to have a frank conversation. She’d have preferred if it had been on her terms, not when she was groggy from sleep, half-dressed, and already ticked off at him.

Eli set his arms wide apart. “Look, I know I hid things from you. But I’ve told you everything now, it’s all in the open. Hand on my heart, I’m an open book.”

She stuck a foot out from the end of the covers and tapped him on the head. “Sounds easy when you say it like that.” 

She took some time just to re-evaluate her current feelings towards him. Unlike Wendy, who they hadn’t really seen for a long time before the betrayal, Eli had been with her for a good two years right up until the end. Even then, she’d never been quite sure of how deep exactly he considered their relationship to be.

A ‘flexible arrangement’ had been one of the terms they’d used. They shared an apartment, had regular sex, and were always around each other. But had there ever been more to it than that? She’d had other partners during that time, ones Eli was well aware of. Was it always simply a casual thing, sex on weekends and that was it, no more significance?

She wanted to know, and that meant drilling down to the root of all of this. “Tell me one thing Eli. Why’d you join the Society? I get Wendy, she was at a low point, she really believes. I never thought _you_ of all people would sign up for a cause. No offence.”

He waved his arm. “Nah, it’s true. I always was kind of a slacker. Things never got as bad for me as they did for Wendy. Somehow I always landed on my feet, coasting through life. You know me.” He smiled at her, that same lopsided grin that perfectly reflected his personality. He sucked in some air. “I think Ivan came to me, ooh… February ’25. He and Wendy showed up at the motel I was staying at, some place on the side of a highway. Didn’t know where I was going, just moving forwards.”

Like Mabel’s own path through life, keeping moving to avoid dwelling too long on any one problem.

“I thought they were nuts at first of course. Like Jehovah’s Witnesses, tryna' sell me something. All that talk of a ‘better world’, none of it mattered to me. Selfish old me.”

Mabel was surprised to see Eli expressing such a genuine emotion. It really seemed like he was almost disappointed in his past self for caring so little.

“That’s actually how they convinced me in the end. Not with their spiel about portals or magic energy sources. They did it with you.”

“With me?”

“They told me about the stuff you were doing. Running fundraisers for the homeless, starting campaigns, fighting freaking corruption with actual break-ins and riots!”

Mabel actually blushed at the praise. “Aw, it’s nothing.” She blushed ever more when Eli took her hands in his, trying to get his point across as clearly as possible.

“No, but really. You had so much spirit. It was like I finally had some direction in my life, I saw the world the way you see it. As damaged and frail, but fixable if we just put our minds to it and believe in each other.” He stared deep into her eyes, imploring her to see his viewpoint.

Once again, she was in two minds about the Eli situation. Half of her wanted to be rational, to say ‘once burned twice shy’. But the overwhelming remainder felt touched by his speech. His conviction back in Russia had seemed odd at the time. Eli had never shown that sort of drive for anything before. Now she saw that it was actually his true self flourishing for once. He’d always been fighting for her cause, in a way, even if that had meant spying on her.

“Oh, come here you!” She wrapped him up in a big, warm hug. She felt him tighten the embrace, the awkward shuffling around each other from the past weeks finally shedding away.

He leant close and whispered in her ears, a move that made Mabel’s chest flutter unexpectedly. “So, does this mean you forgive me?”

“Hmm, until the next time you do something stupid. Ha!” She pushed him onto his back. He decided to play along with some mild wrestling. The two of them giggled and rolled around, like there had never been anything standing between them.

Lying on top of him, she felt whole again. No more secrets, no more broken friendships. She was at home in a place she loved, with people she loved. Seeing Eli’s smiling face, she impulsively gave him a quick smooch on the lips, as if to say, ‘you’re not so bad, let’s get ready for the day’.

After moving away from the kiss, she felt the pull of his arm. Eli looked up at her, strangely entranced. Suddenly Mabel couldn’t help it. “Oh, what the hell.”

She started making out with him voraciously, giving fast repeated kisses all over his mouth. His eyes boggled for a moment before he processed what she was doing. His grip on her back tightened even more.

Smiling widely, she tugged at the bottom of her tank top and flung it aside. “Alright, enough build-up. Take me Eli, now.” He didn’t need to be told twice, launching himself at her naked form.

“AH!” An ear-piercing scream filled the room. Mabel and Eli jerked their heads towards the door. Unfortunately, that had been the moment when Lee Ramirez, Soos and Melody’s oldest child, 11 years old, had chosen to walk into the room. He ran out the room, one arm covering his face. The pair could hear his shouts all the way across the Shack. “Mom! Dad! Miss Pines is doing something very naughty in the guest room!”

Eli looked up at Mabel, grimacing guiltily. “That’s probably not good, right?”

“Add it to the list.” Realising that Eli was still frozen in surprise, she grabbed his hands and guided them roughly to her chest. “Uh, did I say stop? We’ve already gone this far, don’t wanna waste the morning! Now get those pants off.”

* * *

_1 large yellow onion (roughly chopped)  
5 cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)  
2 large chicken breasts (must talk to Rico about Tofu or Quorn alternatives)  
1 tablespoon of coarse salt  
1 tablespoon of freshly ground pepper (2 if I’m feeling lucky)  
2 tablespoons of olive oil  
4 cups of chicken stock (again, need a non-meat version)  
1 and a 1/2 pounds of mixed potatoes  
2 to 3 ears of fresh corn (cut crosswise into quarters)  
1 bunch of cilantro, with stems (washed well and tied with twine)  
1 bunch of green onions  
2 tablespoons dried guascas (Hard to come by, need source these, maybe try a farmer’s market)_

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_Oh man, I nearly forgot about this book again. Things have been so busy lately I haven’t had time to write in it. The last few weeks have been intense! Construction’s ramped up like 10x, we’ve got a rota, so folks are working day and night, except on weekends. At this rate the whole portal will be done in no time._

_Some slight snags: Dipper combed through Ford’s blueprints and found some encoded sections we’d missed before. Turns out he’s going to have to go on one more parts retrieval mission, over to the crash site. Some propulsion drive thing. Once he has that we’ll be able to finish up with what we have._

_That wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for more ‘expeditions’. Wendy and Eli took it into their own hands to have another skim through the bunker, they were able to pull out some stuff Dipper had missed on his trip with the clones. I think Ivan and the Society wanted to make sure they weren’t missing anything from ‘the great Stanford Pines’._

_Bo’s been schmoozing with the weird folks that live in the Crawlspace – that hidden magical town where all the black-market traders hang out. He managed to get us a deal for moonstones; not really useful for the portal, but they can be ground up to make a protective layer that can be applied to our survival suits. We’ll have shield against magic attacks, how cool is that!?_

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_But enough about work. I think what I’ll remember most about this summer, more than the constant noise of drills from the basement or the effort we’re all putting in, is how it’s like we’re all one massive family. We’ve brought so many people together, it’s only natural that we’re starting to get used to living together._

_We all take turns cooking in the evenings. Since we have folks from all over the world we get to expand our diets, that’s so cool! It’s a good way for us to all share a bit of culture and get to know each other better. God knows we needed ways to break the ice._

_Bokamoso hosted a ‘braai’ – it’s like a South African barbecue – we all ate outside on picnic tables for that one. Grenda did bratwurst the other day (she’s missing her Marius, aw), me and Dipper had a veggie version instead. Candy cooked us this really simple noodle dish she learnt as a kid from her parents. _

_[Note to self: Candy, like my brother and Eli, is an awful cook – but hey, it’s the thought that counts!]_

_Pacifica and Wendy even joined forces one evening, since it turns out they both knew how to cook a wild mushroom soup using stuff they gathered in the forest themselves! Oregon girls unite!_

_I’ve tried to host some communal activities too, to break up the stress of work. We all went out to the lake one day. Uncle Rico’s troops had a big volleyball contest against the Society, that was hilarious to watch. So much testosterone on display, muy macho._

_I think, most of all though, it’s Dipper who I’ve most enjoyed spending the summer with. It’s like he never left. He’s been making sure to include me in all the science talk, even though he knows it’s above me. It’s nice to feel a part of what’s going on. I’ve also been helping him copy over his journal entries to the new editions. It’s kinda funny how set against me he was in some of the earlier entries of Journal 7, I can practically feel him mellow over time as I turn the pages._

_Summerween was last week, and this time Dipper actually wore a costume. I wanted to twin-theme it like we used to, and he agreed! Such a big turnaround from last Halloween. I got him to dress as a tiger, with all the face paint and whiskers. I went as a circus trainer, naturally, ha!_

_Pacifica loved Tiger-Dipper, her costume was an Egyptian Queen. Wonder where she got that idea, lol. I think she wanted to use it as a way of mocking our enemies, like, “take that, we’re beating you,” that kind of thing._

_This’ll sound corny, but it’s just so _nice_ to have Dipper act like this again, all loose and having fun. Simple as that, nice to have my brother back. With him by my side, it feels like nothing can stand in our way._

_Though, not everything’s been perfect this summer. Saying goodbye was really hard, even if it was probably for the best…_

__

* * *

“No! You can’t go! I’ll miss you so much!”

As the sun was setting on another day, things had finally reached their limit at the Mystery Shack. Standing outside with their packed bags, the Ramirez’s had finally decided to leave. There hadn’t been much fuss, Soos had simply had enough. The construction work had been disrupting his tours through the Shack; there were constant interruptions from minor explosions to earth tremors.

He couldn’t handle it any longer. Gathering up Melody and the kids, they’d quickly grabbed everything they’d need for the next few weeks until the portal team’s work was done. Now, with Mason already gone on his retrieval mission, only Mabel, Pacifica, and Wendy were there to see the family off.

Mabel wasn’t happy about it. “We’ll be quieter, reduce the workload or something! We could only work at night, or maybe some of the team could move into a hotel in town, or-“

“Mabel!” Soos knelt down and rested a hand on her shoulder. “It’s alright doods. This is the best solution for everyone. My Abuelita’s old place will be fine for the rest of the summer. You guys do what you have to do, then we’ll come back. No need to cry, Hambone.”

“B-but you can’t go!” Mabel whimpered. “You’re family.”

He smiled sympathetically, knowing how attached Mabel could get. “I’ve got my own family to think about. You guys will be ok without old Soos getting in the way.” Leaving Mabel blubbing, he looked up at Wendy. “Keep things tidy, alright? As an ex-employee of the Shack, I’m trusting you to make sure nothing bad happens, ok?”

“You got it dude. Everything’ll be ship-shape for when you get back. That’s a Corduroy promise.” The redhead saluted her old work colleague, that bond forged in the fires of Stan’s employ.

“Goodbye, Mr Ramirez,” Pacifica said. She’d known Soos for a long time, but the relationship had always stayed strictly professional. He’d been an odd beacon in some ways, running the Shack which had for so many years been her escape from her awful home-life. So now even she was sad to see the big guy, who’d always stayed so happy to let her visit, heading off.

“See ya P-dog.” Soos suddenly turned serious. “I hope you can solve your dream problems. And never forget. You’ve always got a family to turn to. We might be thrown together and all a little strange, but sometimes that’s what families are. Even if it’s not… well, you know, official.”

“I do.” She nodded, understanding him perfectly.

Soos stood back up. “Right. We best be going now then.” He saw Mabel out of the corner of his eye. She was still sobbing uncontrollably to herself. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you.”

“Do you really have to go, Soos?” She already knew what his answer would be. He didn’t have to say anything. “I’m gonna make sure we’re done as soon as possible; you guys won’t even have time to settle in your new place! I promise.”

“I’m counting on it.” He smiled and hefted his pack over his shoulder. The three girls watched as long as they could, before Mr Mystery and his family disappeared off along the trail. Pacifica and Wendy headed inside, but Mabel waited a moment longer, gazing towards the setting sun. On top of everything else, she was completing this mission for their sake now.


	26. The Museum

Agent Archibald Powers quickened his stride down the concrete hallway buried deep underground. Beside him his partner, Trigger, sped up his pace in time to match Powers’. A few years his junior, Trigger had proven to be a trusted aide, and they’d worked on many cases together for Bureau over the years. Now they had a place to be and no time to delay.

The night before, an unidentified aerial vehicle had crash landed north of Mt Hood. Law enforcement had immediately descended upon the region and cordoned off the site. Witness reports claimed that a jet of flame had been seen originating across the state border, in Oregon, though its origin couldn’t be precisely determined.

The craft had been removed and shipped to the facility, along with the single occupant. Now it was time for the interrogation. The two agents reached the secure room, taken up by a covered gurney. Trigger pulled over a small desk on wheels. An array of sharp scalpels lay on it, but Powers put his hand out to push it away. “I don’t think we’ll be needing those today. Not if the report was accurate.” Itching to get into the interrogation, Trigger almost looked disappointed to the put the implements to one side.

Powers took hold of the edge of the sheet. Below was the occupant of the craft, pulled out unconscious from the wreckage. Who knew what secrets he could tell them, what mysteries would be revealed. He pulled the sheet away.

Both agents’ mouths dropped open. Strapped down to the table and grinning up at them was a smiling man with messy brown hair and a goatee. “Oh hey! This is unexpected.”

* * *

Mason squinted up at the harsh lamp being shone in his face. It was one thing that he still had a mild concussion from the crash, now he was being thrown straight into an attempt to extract information. As he adjusted to the light, he made out the two figures standing over him. They were dressed in smart suits; government agents it seemed.

One of the agents with a bushy moustache activated a tape recorder while the other panned the lamp over Mason’s body. “Subject analysis begins now. I’ll start with surface observations. The being appears human; Caucasian male, approximately 30 years old.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know I’m not even 29 for another fortnight!”

“The subject is conscious and aware of our presence.”

“Yep.”

The agent didn’t make any further comment to him. “Continuing with my visual scan.” He moved the lamp down his body. Mason blushed and covered his groin as it passed over that area. It was then he realised that he was wearing a medical gown – they’d changed him out of his clothes. The agent then shone a pen-torch in Mason’s eye. “Subject shows no signs of abnormal biology, suggesting he’s a local who acquired the UFO from a terrestrial source.”

“You could just ask me if you wanna know?”

“The subject will not speak during the initial assessment.” The other agent, the one who had lighter hair and a more severe haircut, had spoken. He looked a lot more like he was restraining himself from lashing out at his new prisoner. Mason made a mental note not to antagonise him too much.

The more relaxed senior agent gave a slightly dismissive look at his colleague, then turned back to Mason. “Alright then, I’m initiating communication with the subject. Let’s talk.” He awkwardly got down on one knee to seem more approachable, but it had the opposite effect. He was trying too hard and it only exacerbated the artificiality. “We pulled you out of a craft more advanced than any known conventional plane currently in service. Care to explain how you came by it?”

Mason shrugged. It couldn’t hurt to be honest. “It’s an alien scout ship. Well, prison ship more accurately. Prison _drone_ if you wanna get even more specific. I was after the propulsion drive, but it’s probably fried now. Shame.” The agents shared a quick glance. “You don’t seem particularly surprised by my story. Wait, don’t tell me, you already know about aliens. Let me guess, this is some kind of research base, where you stick all the poor crashed souls who end up on Earth.”

The casual way Mason had intuited their line of work did raise questions in the agents’ minds. The older agent huddled closer to him, as if he was about to confide some secret intel. “Alright, how about this? We’ll give you some information, then you tell us where you got the ship. The place in which you’re being held is a secure facility beneath Groom Lake. You’re right, we are holding many unique pieces of technology here, kinds that the government doesn’t want the general populace knowing about. You’re privileged to even set foot in here.”

“Wait, Groom Lake…?” Wheels turned in Mason’s mind, before his mouth turned upwards in a massive smile. “We’re in Nevada right, top secret US air force base. Area 51! No way, I am geeking out! Do you have any live aliens? Do you have the Roswell ship?!”

The agents’ chilly response dampened his excitement somewhat. “Perhaps later. First tell us something about yourself, mr…”

He narrowed his eyes, unsure how honest to be. He reasoned that he would get nowhere if he didn’t offer some sign of acquiescing to their questioning. “Pines. Mason Pines. And you?”

The older agent pointed at his chest, then to his partner. “My name is Agent Powers, and this is Agent Trigger. We investigate reports of mysterious activity across the country. Like your little UFO stunt.”

“Wait, Powers and Trigger… that rings a bell.” He looked between the two men, then his eyes widened. With more greying hair perhaps, but otherwise unchanged, these were the two secret agents who’d been drawn to Gravity Falls 16 years ago to investigate the energy given off by the portal.

For a moment he was worried that something had gone wrong with Candy’s containment field, and their location was compromised. Then he calmed down, remembering that it was more likely that they only knew about the crash, and weren’t investigating deeper. At least not yet.

“Oh man, you guys! This is crazy, it’s been ages since I last saw you!”

“You’ve seen us before?” Trigger asked.

Mason suddenly regretted his eagerness. “Uh, oh yeah, you wouldn’t remember me. Of course.”

Trigger spoke again, louder and harsher. “You mean we encountered you under an assumed alias?!”

“Oh, well, not like that…” Mason struggled to think how he could ever possibly explain to these agents that the memories of their meeting had been wiped over a decade and a half ago.

Powers shrugged. “It will all come to light eventually. You’re currently a prisoner of the US government Mr Pines, I suggest not trying to hide things from us.”

Mason struggled against the straps holding him down. “Look, I’m not gonna tell you about the ship. It’s probably too damaged to work now, boom, kaput. You’re better off just letting me go so I can-“

“So you and May Pines can continue your malicious campaign of insurgency?”

“Hey, my sister’s not that bad- wait, how do you know I’m related to…” Mason’s throat went dry as Trigger removed a leather-bound book from a plastic Ziploc bag.

“This was taken from you along with all your other personal affects.” Mason tried not to react any further when he clearly saw the number 7 on the book’s cover, along with the shimmering golden constellation. 

Powers took Journal 7 and opened it to the first page. Mason wanted to slap himself. “If you were trying to hide your identity, then it wasn’t very wise of you to write your full name on the first page. Yes, we already know who you are.” The agent flipped through the rest of the pages nonchalantly. “While most of this journal of yours is quite fanciful – I highly doubt the existence of alien fish sirens, mystic dream dimensions, or a snake-elk hybrid called the Snelk, for instance – there are some parts that caught my eye. Mainly these blueprints.” He showed the page of his incomplete Calculations, the other six parts of which were spread through his newer journals. At least they couldn’t extrapolate out the research without those.

He tried to appear more confident. “So what? As far as I’m aware, nothing in that book’s illegal. I’m not plotting a terror attack or building a bomb or something. You have nothing tying me to my sister anyway, we haven’t spoken in five years.”

“Oh really?” Powers only had to raise a single eyebrow to send a chill down his spine. Trigger opened a file with a blurry black and white profile photo of his face attached by a paperclip. Long sections of the file were censored out by black bars. 

Trigger showed off more fuzzy images, taken from CCTV cameras. “Sightings of you and your wife with May Pines were recorded in Russia, India, and Istanbul. This case file was established after we pulled you out of the ship’s wreckage. It seems you’re more notorious than we gave you credit for.”

“Enough lying, Mr Pines,” Powers said. “We know you’re an associate of May Pines. You might even have been taken in by her, she’s supposedly very charismatic. But she is dangerous, to herself and others. Perhaps if you were to, say, collaborate with us on this matter… well, then maybe we can forget this meeting as we apparently did our last one.”

There was the obvious question left unspoken about what would happen if he didn’t go along with them. “You know it’s funny. A short time ago I’d have probably agreed with you. But my sister is one of the most loyal people you could ever meet. I’m not gonna betray her just like that. If you want to know where I got the spaceship, you can kiss my ass.”

Trigger leapt at him, getting right up in Mason’s face. He panicked, looking at the senior agent for some hope that he’d restrain his wild dog of a partner. Powers almost looked like he was about to allow Trigger to fly off the handle, when he stood rigid and pressed a hand to his ear. He spoke into what must be an earpiece. “Uh-huh? I see. It seems, Mr Pines, that there’s someone higher up who wishes to speak with you. By the time we return you’d better be a lot more talkative, otherwise you’ll be the newest exhibit in our museum.”

He put Journal 7 down on the table with the scalpels, visible to Mason but just out of reach. The two agents filed out of the room about to leave Mason alone. He strained to break free. “You can’t do this to me! I’m a US citizen.”

“According to the External Defence Act of 2026, we have every right to hold you until a pending time. Get used to it, because you’re going to be in this facility for a long time.” Powers slammed the door shut.

Strapped to the table, imprisoned deep underground, and completely alone, Mason gave a sigh of relief. Finally, he could get to work.

* * *

At the same time, far away back in Gravity Falls, Pacifica was also alone. And starting to get cold. She’d come up to the roof to stargaze, bringing an old telescope. It had been a birthday gift from Mason years ago. Now she was using it to find him again.

It was easy to pinpoint the right constellation, one of the most obvious in the night sky. Pointing towards the North Star, there it was. Even separated, she could always find her Ursus. Obscuring it slightly was that strange colourful cloud too.

This nagged at her, it was one thing she still couldn’t reconcile. If it wasn’t for that cloud, none of their recent travels would have happened. Yet it refused to be understood. It wasn’t connected to the mysterious signal, nor did it have anything to do with the a-mortals or the Zodiac. It was an anomaly, a message from above. A message from who?

She was brought back down to earth by the sounds of murmured voices from below. In the Shack she knew that sounds carried. The thin wooden walls left little privacy. If you looked between a certain slat in the attic bedroom you could even see all the way down two floors into the museum. 

A shiver ran over her body at the chill. Despite the cool summer air, she’d rather be up here in the cold than getting involved in the messy dynamics below.

The ‘team’ they’d assembled to work on the portal, the same team that would be coming with them on their journey through it, had fractured into smaller groups. On one side was Candy’s group. They wanted to get the mission done as quickly and painlessly as possible, and once that was over they could put the whole portal business behind them. Followers of this ideal included most of the people who’d been witnesses to what happened the last time a portal backfired.

The other side was the Society, who had much grander ideals in mind. They wanted to explore the mysteries of the multiverse, yes, but they also wanted to use the technology to improve things, regardless of the dangers. Wendy, despite being present during Weirdmageddon and very aware of the dangers, was firmly of this mindset. The Society had really done a number on her. She often spoke loudly of how the projects they were working on could benefit society at large. Several times Candy had to remind them that this was all top secret, intimidating them into silence.

For now they were playing along, after all, the a-mortals were still out there. It wouldn’t do to reveal the portal to the public and hand their enemies the key to their problem. So there was a mutual cold war brewing between the two factions, each one digging in and refusing to budge.

Then there was Mabel. Instead of picking a side she’d tried to mediate. She’d always played peacemaker; she couldn’t stand to see people arguing. In her mind they should all get along, united by a common goal. Pacifica was too cynical to believe they could ever get such disparate people to come together, but where was the harm in letting her try.

She’d already convinced her beloved ‘Uncle’ Rico to see her point of view. Though to be fair, the old museum piece was largely ignorant of the portal’s risks or rewards. He was just here to repay a favour to his _sobrina_, not get tangled up in particle physics.

Mabel’s ‘close’ friend Eli was also lending her support. It tested his allegiance to Ivan and Wendy, but that was nothing new. As it always was with him, it was ‘complicated’.

One person she’d expected to side with Mabel’s camp had surprised her however. Bo Potgieter was seemingly supporting the Society’s point of view, an unforeseen move for such an anarchic trickster. But then again, he’d grown up dirt poor. It was no wonder that the Society’s goals appealed to him.

That was the state of things down there. She and Mason were largely on Candy’s side, but the whole debate was tiring her out. She hadn’t had to keep track of this many relationships since she’d been a kid, and it had been required of her to be constantly socially aware to stay on top of trends. 

This recent debacle was in many ways like all the resentment between the twins she’d had to put up with for months. They’d figured things out. She hoped all the people downstairs, who they’d have to trust to have their backs when they went through the portal, could similarly put aside their differences.

Mason would be back soon. She clung to that thought as she wrapped herself tighter under the blanket. Once he returned, they’d be in the final stretch of the project. Then they could put all the bickering behind them and move on. As long as nothing snapped in the interim.

* * *

Try as he might, Mason could find no way to loosen the straps holding him down. He’d struggled against them for 15 minutes now with no success. He was just thankful that whoever Powers and Trigger had gone to collect was taking their sweet time.

He gave one last effort, then fell back exhausted on the gurney. So much for that. His plan was getting off to a fantastic start. Maybe a different tack was required? He relaxed his muscles, trying to make himself feel as calm and focused as possible. Under his breath he began chanting a spell taught by Bokamoso. It was in a strange language, one many of the spell books the shaman consulted were written in. 

“Tahgemah b'soo rekoah! Tahgemah!” He spoke the word again with a bit more emphasis, hoping it would work. In essence it was a telekinesis spell that would pull Journal 7 over to him. In practice however it was proving rather ineffective. He noticed the book shift a little on the table, but it didn’t exactly fly over to him. “Tahgemah?” No reaction.

He rested his head back in defeat. Why did he have to suck at magic so much compared to Mabel? She was already quite adept; he’d seen her summon fire demons for protection, she’d done some work on shield spells, and was even working on mastering a short-range teleportation spell. That kind of spell would have been very useful for him right about now.

He’d have to rely on another way to free himself. Maybe if he really tried he could remember one of Grunkle Stan’s escapology tricks. How did they work again? Something do with loosening up so much you could just slide out of chains, or some cheap ruse like that?

“Pfft, yeah right. I’d be better off just wishing the restraints would disappear in a puff of smoke.”

There was a jolt from the table his journal was sitting on. For a second he thought that it was his spell, finally working after a delayed reaction. But it wasn’t his book that was moving. The scalpels and other medical instruments were jerking to life, and even beginning to float in the air.

Very unusual. Now wasn’t the time to sit idly by and watch the phenomenon. It might be his ticket out of here. The scalpels began floating over him. He was mildly worried that they’d start attacking him for some reason but had to ignore that minor fear. As one of the scalpels swirled past, he reached out his hand as far as he could.

Success. He grabbed hold of the scalpel. He tested it against his restraints. There was a lot of resistance, but he applied himself and sawed back and forth. Eventually the first restraint snapped and fell off. With his arm fully freed, he cut the rest of his bonds in no time.

He retrieved Journal 7, checking that none of the pages had been tampered with or removed. Satisfied it was intact, he took stock of his situation. He knocked on the door to this room, which wasn’t quite a prison cell and wasn’t quite an operating room. As he’d suspected – the agents hadn’t bothered to lock the door.

He left the bizarre hovering instruments behind, resolving to solve that little mystery once he was safely out of here. He did wish he had something more to wear than this blue medical tunic; he was frighteningly bare underneath and it didn’t go nearly low enough down his legs for his comfort.

He stuck his head out into the corridor. It was empty. So far, so good. The agents must have really believed he couldn’t escape, else they’d have paid more attention to security. Ironically they thought they were secure enough already, giving him free reign of these corridors.

Being locked in this place made one thing abundantly clear. Mabel was right. About a lot of things. If the government was willing to lock him up here without trial, they were just as bad as she always said. Maybe once this was over he’d join one of her campaigns against this sort of thing, he idly thought to himself.

He turned to the back of Journal 7, where he’d scribbled a rough schematic of the base. He hoped Mabel’s intel was accurate. It was pieced together from early construction blueprints from the 40’s, and a lot might have changed since then. Still, he logically knew that what he was after would be in one of the largest rooms of the complex. Two rights, a left, then up a flight of stairs.

That led him to heavy door. He was about to despair, lacking the skills to break in. Then he noticed that the door was already slightly ajar. Quietly, he pushed it a little more open so he could squeeze through, then closed it again behind him.

The room inside was poorly lit, so he tried a simple illumination spell. “Fiat Lux.” The orb of light he summoned was dim and kept flickering but was better than nothing.

He smiled appreciatively when he saw he was in the right place. Rows upon rows of shelves were stacked high. He examined one section quickly. There were crates full of small technical components. Mason knew these weren’t mere spare parts or prototypes. These items were salvaged.

This was the Museum of Trespassers. Every single recorded UFO sighting in the last 90 years, all of it was taken seriously. And anything that was physically recovered was brought straight here to be catalogued and stored. Once it was on American soil, it was the government’s property. He marvelled at the size of the room – how much had they been hiding down here? It was not unlike Selchen’s menagerie in Russia, only much more professional.

This was why he was here. This was why he’d made the crash so dramatic and obvious. How else to catch the attention of the FBI and get him a direct ticket to this place? This would fill their last requirements for the portal, he was sure of that now.

First he had to find the ship though. Even though he’d used it for a distraction, he still wanted some parts from it. He checked the filing system; every shelf was labelled clearly. He made his way along to the most recent acquisitions. As he went he saw that some areas of the museum weren’t just taken up by shelves, but by large objects resting on the bare floor. He saw other remnants of ships, flat silver discs and futuristic rockets – all gathering dust in here.

The agency didn’t want to study these artefacts. They didn’t want to try and retro-engineer their own space programme. They wanted them buried and forgotten. The thought of all those beings out there in space – it was too much of a threat to even contemplate. “Nevermind all that,” he ruefully thought. “Just stick it underground and forget.”

He came to the last row, where his crashed pod had already been moved. Giving it the once over, he quickly deduced that the ship was junk now. The crash had been real enough to make it unflyable. No matter. He reached inside and opened up a panel. There was a small glowing sphere which he tugged out of its socket.

That was all he was after from the ship – the propulsion drive. It was quite a wonder of technology. Despite being able to power a faster-than-light engine, the core would be small enough to tuck in his jacket pocket, if he was wearing one.

Now for what was turning out to be a very productive mission. He was like a kid in a candy store. He barely knew where to start. There were only a few gaps in the portal’s construction that needed filling, but every item in here was, rather obviously, alien to him. Still, there were only so many ways one could build, say, a particle accelerator. He wished Pacifica was here, she could scan for patterns and spot what they needed for sure.

There was a clatter that echoed around the warehouse. Mason tensed. He wasn’t alone down here. He bent down to crouch behind the shelves, hoping he wouldn’t be spotted. He jumped when something went whizzing past his head. It was a small metal bolt, flying off towards where he’d heard the noise.

“Ow!” A second later another small bolt hit him in the back of the head, trying to fly in the same direction as the other. All around more items were lifting off the shelves and heading off to the other side of the museum.

Enough of trying to be stealthy. Mason recognised this effect. Time to confront his fellow intruder. With Journal 7 tucked under one arm and the propulsion core held in his other hand, he tried to make himself look imposing in the medical gown.

Across the museum, Mason traced the floating objects to their source. As he thought, there was the source of this strange power, the same one that had inadvertently allowed him to break free. Sat on the floor, surrounded by hundreds of tiny spinning pieces of equipment was a man wrapped in animal furs. He was hunched over in a way that looked painful, but from what Mason had seen this man was accustomed to it.

The various components drawn here like a magnet circled around a large device the man was constructing. He waved his arms around, directing the flow of screws and bolts. Completely wrapped up in his work, Mason was able to creep right up behind the man.

“Tool Maker!” He cried out. The hunched man jumped in fright, and the floating tools fell to the floor with a mighty sound. He swivelled around on his haunches, initially panicked. Then he frowned when he saw who’d disturbed him.

“You. Pines.”

“Well well well, if it isn’t our aspiring Neanderthal builder. Working on something big, are we?” He quickly glanced at the machine the Tool Maker had assembled. From the outside he couldn’t tell what it was, only that the a-mortal was putting all the various alien items together on the inside. “I thought I’d just snag a couple of curios, but I got you as well.”

Mason took a step forwards and the Tool Maker recoiled. Pitiful, Mason thought. Of all the a-mortals they’d encountered, he felt no fear of this one. If Andromeda, someone with very little practical adventuring experience, could take him out, he was confident in his own ability to subdue the man.

The Tool Maker moved over to his machine in a simian-like way, knuckle-walking quickly. He was a strange juxtaposition of the very primitive and the cutting edge all at once. “I have a special arrangement with the agency. They allowed me access to this archive to produce this…”

“This what?” The man remained tight lipped. Mason examined the machine again, trying to discern its purpose. He thought about what the a-mortals wanted as a whole, then realised it did look familiar. “This is your own homegrown portal projector.” He actually laughed out loud, making the Tool Maker scowl. “Oh man, you guys are barking up the wrong tree. You’ve got no containment ring, no dispersal frame for the excess. Wait, let me see.”

“Stay back!” The Tool Maker didn’t try to stop him getting up close to the device and staring down its length.

“You create a remote frame out this end, suspend it in the air, then… Oh my god, that won’t even open up a hole large enough for a person to step through! Ha! You’ve got nothing!”

“There are… errors to iron out, this is merely a prototype.”

“Face it, you’ve got no clue what you’re doing. You’ve got some vague ideas of the principles, I’ll grant you. I bet the government probably has some of Ford’s early tentative ideas for the portal. But this is so far from working it’s laughable. And to think we were scared of you building one of these things.”

“Do you think this is funny?” The Tool Maker lifted and hand. Mason stepped away as the various components hovered back up into the air.

“I mean, your technical skill is impressive, don’t get me wrong. But the underlying plan you’re working with is backwards. How are you doing that anyway, the trick with the floating tools? Is it something like your Chartakinetic Egyptian friend? Is that the right Latin there? Charta, sounds kinda weird.”

“This isn’t a joke, human!” the Tool Maker snapped. “This is a fundamental part of me, how I was able to transcend my simple flesh.” Mason stopped his provocation, now genuinely curious to hear what the Neanderthal had to say. “I was one of the first to reach out, to see the natural world and realise it could be tamed. At first, just using a sharpened stone to cut meat, assembling a pile of branches to reach higher fruit on the trees. Then I began to move beyond such simple constructs. Combine a branch with a length of vine and you have a bow. So on and so on.”

“Sounds like you were a real productive sort of guy,” Mason said with arms crossed. “So what, you came to some ‘cosmic realisation’ about your tools, and that made you immortal? Oops, slip of the tongue there. Cause you’re not immortal, are you?”

The Tool Maker shrunk back, recognising Mason’s implicit threat. “I saw the rise of you chattering apes long ago. Homo Sapiens, you named yourself. _Wise man._” he spat derisively. “You have all lost your spark. There’s no care for your tools anymore, you don’t even make them yourselves. You leave that to others, and when the tools break you simply discard them and move on. I am not like that. Every tool I make I keep. I add, and improve, and keep on growing. That is how my body works too.”

“Whatever, man.” Mason shrugged. “You a-mortals talk a big talk, but I know how you really are. How scared you feel about the coming end.”

Mason saw an odd spark light up behind the Tool Maker’s eyes. “Oh, I’m not scared. I’m ecstatic.”

“W-what? What do you-“

“I wonder what the First will think of you?”

“Enough of the cryptic games. Trigger and Powers will be back soon, I need to get what I came for and-“

“I wasn’t done talking, Mr Pines!” The Neanderthal practically rolled up into a ball and blocked Mason’s path. “I can manipulate more than just solid objects. How about I send you back, little ape. De-evolution time. Regress!”

Mason didn’t have time to react before the Tool Maker reached out and gripped onto the side of his head with each hand. With his cold bony fingers digging painfully into his skull, Mason felt his thought processes start to slow down.

“Go back child. Back to basics.”

* * *

_I’m bursting full of energy, ready to let it all out._

_”Don’t you look adorable in that outfit Mason!”_

_”Look Mommy, I’m the lamby-lamb!” I spin around to show off the costume._

_“Dippy’s da lamb! Yay!” Mabel’s here too and I know she’s slightly jealous that I got picked to wear the suit._

_“Are you ready to perform your song? Are you?”_

_“Yes Mommy, I am!” I prepare myself, taking a deep, oversized breath. Mom chuckles, then I exhale and begin to sing and dance._

_“Disco Girl! Coming through – That girl is you!”_

__“Wait, that’s wrong! That’s the wrong song!”__

_I’m in the bathroom of the Mystery Shack, those familiar wooden walls. Just got out the shower and now I’m shaking my hips back and forth. Damn, that beat’s catchy. If the word guilty pleasure could manifest in song form, this would be it. I feel like I could dance all night long._

_All night long. In the club, music so loud. Pounding out, 124 beats per minute. Pacifica presses her body up against mine in the bustling crowd. That night we kiss for the first time, and my heart races faster than the music ever could._

__No, stop this!__

_At Zumba now. Pacifica dragged me. I’m the only guy here, the rest are all middle-aged woman. I don’t see the need – I’m not fat, just not particularly athletic. But it gets me and Paz out of the house at least. The one time a week we can do something together as a couple again._

_Wait, dancing, singing. It’s coming back to me now. I’m not a kid anymore, I’m… I’m not stuck in the past anymore!_

__

“Ugh!” Mason returned to full consciousness, back in the museum. The Tool Maker fell back, releasing his grip. Mason breathed in a deep lungful of air, glad to be back in the present, then turned on the a-mortal. “What did you do to me?!”

The a-mortal was curled up on the floor and covering his face. Mason saw an old, frail man, no longer any kind of threat. “You tried to put me back. Back to some simple hominid, bereft of all intelligence. Well it didn’t work! One thing you should know about me, Took Maker. I have had a _lot_ of experience with mental attacks. I’ve beaten dream demons and vast consciousnesses from beyond our reality. So if you try that shit with me again… I’ll show you what it’s like to be ‘de-evolved’.”

The Tool Maker whimpered and tried to crawl away. All around the components he’d summoned to him were shaking wildly on the floor, reflecting their master’s current state.

Mason saw his journal lying on the museum floor, then noticed that the propulsion core was missing. He must have dropped it when the Tool Maker started his attack. 

He fumbled around in a mildly frantic search for it. He found it had rolled under one of the nearby shelves. He snatched it up off the floor then angrily turned on the cowering a-mortal. “Right. You and I are getting out of here. I know you can do it. We’ve got all the resources we could ever want. So build!”

* * *

Powers and Trigger hastened down the hallway towards the museum. They’d already suffered a major embarrassment on finding that Pines had somehow escaped. Their visitor, the one who’d wished to speak directly with the man, had not been impressed. He had another operation taking place in this facility that was now equally in jeopardy.

They burst through the unlocked door into the museum, guns already out of their holsters. The shelves near the entrance had been toppled over, the priceless alien artefacts strewn all over the floor. There was a loud grinding sound from the rear of the museum.

Powers directed Trigger to move around from the side as the two agents moved in to attack. There was another clatter from within. “Alright Pines, come out with your hands up. The game is up.” Powers didn’t hear any reply. “You can’t escape in your ship; it’s damaged beyond repair. All the alien junk down here is. Surrender now and we’ll ignore your little escape attempt. The fugitive was silent again.

“Powers, over here!” Trigger had called out. Powers glanced in the direction of the unusual noise, then ran over to his partner. Trigger was standing over a curled-up man, surrounded by discarded tools and mechanical parts. “He’s not responding sir.”

“This is the man who’s supposed to be making something of our museum.” Powers forced the Tool Maker to his feet. “Where’s Pines, man?”

Shaken, the man spoke quietly. “I made him a tool. A very big tool. We might want to hide.”

One of the shelves went flying across the room. The two agents pointed their guns at where it had been thrown from. “You can’t escape!” Powers shouted. The sound of stomping metal was moving towards them faster and faster “All the ships down here are… broken…” He trailed off. It wasn’t a ship. “Open fire!”

The two agents blasted round after round through the dark at the enemy they still couldn’t make out through the gloom. The bullets ricocheted off clanging metal. Something large and imposing was moving towards them. Eventually Powers raised his hand and called a cease fire.

For a second there was dead silence in the whole museum. Then it was Mason’s turn.

The huge shape they’d been firing at raised an arm. Sparks of green lightning were loosed at the agents. They ducked for cover behind a fallen shelf and the lightning danced around the room causing further destruction. Powers stuck his head over the shelf and regretted it instantly.

He could see what Pines had built at last. 15ft tall, blocky, with an enclosed glass canopy covering his frame and four arms laden with weaponry prised from the alien archives. Pines raised one of the mech’s other arms.

“Retreat! Immediate retreat.” The two agents ran as a jet of fire launched over their heads. They stopped to pick up the Tool Maker, dragging him forcibly with them away from the carnage. Pines stomped slowly after them and began alternating his shots between the lightning and repeating minigun fire.

Trigger reached for his earpiece. “We need backup at the museum, we have an extreme hostile unit.”

Satisfied that he’d scared off the initial assault, Mason turned his guns at the concrete roof of the warehouse. It was time to leave these idiots behind.

On the surface of the base, the message had barely been sent out for the troops to mobilise before Mason’s mech broke the surface. The soldiers ran for cover as he climbed out of the pit and unleashed more of his alien arsenal. He’d made the Tool Maker assemble him something that would strike fear into them, with flashy weapons and a bulky form. As Potgieter had taught him, sometimes looking the part was all that was needed. What was it Ivan had said too, about controlling perception?

Regardless, the soldiers perceived him as a terrifying threat. A few of the braver troops began shooting at his casing. Thankfully he’d made sure that he was as safe as possible inside this thing. Its armour was tough as well as simply looking it.

Mason saw a grounded jet near where he’d emerged and fired a bolt of lightning at it. A nearby trooper hiding behind the plane leapt out of the way as it erupted into an orange fireball. “Ha! Take that!” Now he knew how Mabel felt when she graffitied a government billboard or vandalised a corrupt business. Revenge on this scale really did feel awesome!

Yet he could see more troops rushing out to meet him. This mech was strong, but not invincible. He didn’t fancy taking on a rocket launcher anytime soon. He pulled on the clutch and started speeding towards the facility gates as fast as the grinding of gears could carry him, enduring hails of gunfire all the while.

When he reached the barbed wire fence it crumpled like tissue paper. He just carried on his rampage, charging off into the Nevada desert without stopping. Safely stored beside him in the cockpit was the propulsion core and several other components Candy would have to take a look at. He was sure they’d finally have enough to complete the portal.

Realising that the shooting had finally subsided, he pulled a lever. The arms and legs of his mech disconnected and fell off. Tracks extended out of the base of the cockpit and he quickly picked up speed when he bumped down onto the sand. No need for the weapons or the imposing look now he was out of the danger zone.

He tried one last addition to his escape plan, a basic radio he’d got the Tool Maker to patch in. “This is Mason calling home, Mason calling home. Mission accomplished, am on my way back now. Might wanna rendezvous a bit closer, turns out the base was further away than I’d anticipated. Yeah Mabel, I need you ride out on your bike to pick me up. In Nevada. Yes, I know it’s inconvenient. But I’m wearing nothing but a hospital gown, so I kinda need a hand here.”

* * *

Powers surveyed the destruction. Their ‘secure’ museum had a gaping hole through 15 storeys. The men were still trying to put out the fire from the exploded jet. Most importantly, he’d failed their visiting client. “I promise you sir, we’ll have men combing the desert for Pines. He won’t make it to the state border.”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Sir?” Trigger questioned.

The British man looked towards the horizon. “The Tool Maker has disappointed me, but you fine agents did the best you could. In fact, this may turn out to be advantageous. It’s given me my first lead on the Pines in a long time.”

Slightly flustered, Powers and Trigger stood to attention. “As you wish Mr Crane. Our funding for this facility wouldn’t have been possible without your support, after all.”

“Indeed. Dismissed.”

Powers and Trigger visibly slumped once they were given the all-clear. Thankful that there hadn’t been repercussions for their failure, they slinked away before Crane could say more.

The arms dealer remained, fixed on where he’d lost sight of the wayward prisoner. “Mason Pines played these men for fools. One big distracting light show to track them to the source. I think it’s time we repaid the favour.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thanks to anyone who's read this far in the story. Knowing that my writing can give people enjoyment is very rewarding. To add to that, I'd really appreciate if you left a comment. Having some indication of engagement this deep into the story would be quite useful, and getting some critical feedback would be nice too (though don't worry if you don't write anything, I already have up to chapter 39 completed to first draft stage :P). I'm just curious about seeing how many people have soldiered through to get this far :)
> 
> The language Mason tries to cast the spell in this chapter is actually a reference to the game Riven: The Sequel to Myst. He's trying (and failing) to speak in D'ni, quoting similar lines to those used in the game's opening.
> 
> Also, since this is a shorter chapter, I figure it's a decent time to mention some ideas for chapters that were cut before being implemented:
> 
> -An earlier reconciliation for the twins, set around chapter 4 or 5. It would have featured them on the road, staying in a motel. They would have to team up to investigate a haunted diner. I decided to axe it since the pacing in the first act of the story was taking too long to get going, and having the twins get over their issues so quickly seemed too easy. Keeping them more antagonistic was an improvement for the structure. The basic gist of the twins forced to work together was incorporated in a different form in chapters 7 and 10.
> 
> -A literal spaghetti western, with the twins and Pacifica arriving in Spain at the set of an old filming location. There would have been a time travel accident merging them into the past, with cowboys and a western town. Blendin Blandin would have turned out to be involved. This idea was axed for two reasons, one in that it was getting too 'big' an idea, that would have been way too long, and also it was too light-hearted and disconnected from the main story. Essentially, it would have been a lot of words for not much forward momentum. The opening scene of Pacifica and the twins riding in on horseback was used for the opening of chapter 10, The Temptations, which is why Paz is wearing a cowboy outfit.


	27. The Threshold

Prepping for Test #715: Gravitational effect containment. Places people, we’re rolling in T-minus 5.” 

At Candy’s instruction Grenda and Andromeda ran into place at opposite sides of the portal chamber. Now cleared of the majority of the scaffolding, the room was clean and functional. Against the far wall was the portal itself, at last completely covered in its exterior panelling of shiny silver. It was almost time.

“All observers, please ensure your safety ropes are fastened tightly. We don’t want any accidental transferrals this time around. I’m readying the aperture sequence now.”

While Mabel checked over their restraints as they stood in the space in front of the portal, Mason gripped Pacifica’s hand. “Are you nervous?” He whispered into her ear. “This is the last little check before we move to the full-on trials.”

“Only a little.” He felt her hand tighten almost imperceptibly. “Ok, there’s this huge pit in my stomach and I can’t wait. Here’s where everything we’ve worked for finally gets proven. I can’t tell you how many times I dreamt of this moment, back in Trenton. ”

He smiled at her, concealing his own thoughts on the matter. He knew exactly how much this had weighed on her. Every sleepless night had made that abundantly obvious. Now their trip around the world, their tentative alliances with so many, the mad rush to build the whole thing – this was when they’d see if they’d fall on their face. 

This was when they would open the portal for the first time.

Mabel flashed an Ok signal through the glass partition, to tell Candy go ahead with the test. She joined the others waiting with bated breath. “We’re ready for the show, guys. Here goes nothing.” In a matter of seconds the test would begin.

Candy switched on the countdown timer. Only a minute to go. Andromeda and Grenda placed their hands on the dual activation levers on either side of the room. Two levers, to make sure that if something went wrong they’d have a second chance to cut the power.

As the seconds counted down and the ring of alchemical symbols around the aperture started spinning, a hum of energy began to build. Pacifica breathed in sharply. It was a strange sensation, hearing a sound she’d only know from dreams for so long. Her heartbeat started to sync up with the rises and falls of the soothing energy.

She grabbed Mabel’s hand as well, the Mystery Trio linked together as one. She heard Candy call out a ten second warning from the control room… then blissful silence.

Like a bass drop, when Andromeda and Grenda pulled the switches, the portal burst into life. Pacifica stared transfixed in the spinning blue light.

Then her stomach churned as the three of them began to drift off the ground slowly. The rope held them close down, but it was still unsettling. They were all shocked when bolts of lightning began shooting out from the spinning rim.

“It’s ok, stay calm! We expected those. The discharges will pass once we ramp up to full intensity.” Candy’s voice on the intercom was covered by noticeably more static now the portal was active. “Feeding in the constraint protocol now. It’ll only take a moment for the condensers to warm up.”

As she’d predicted, the trio began floating serenely back down to earth. Mason and Mabel marvelled at this. The last time a portal had been active it wrecked half the town with the crazy way it affected gravity. Now Candy had done it: she’d found a way to limit the effect almost entirely.

Back on the ground and with no distractions, the trio looked up with awe at the portal’s blue light. Candy entered from the control room carrying a clipboard. “Alright, gravitational reversal effect now limited to within 2 metres, testing within that radius.” She took a step closer to the portal.

Despite not being tied down like the others, Candy had a confident smile on her lips. She knew this test would work. Amazingly, she got right up beneath the portal without lifting an inch off the floor. She turned to smirk at the trio. “I’d call that a total success. How’s that for Chiu-tech engineering?”

The smirk quickly vanished when Pacifica burst out laughing. She was looking not at the portal, but down at her Pine Tree pendant. It was hovering, trying to tug her towards the portal.

Candy was studying the effect and frowning now. “How odd, the gravitation effect should be non-existent, yet it’s affecting that one piece of jewellery.”

“Ha!” Pacifica hadn’t heard a word she’d said. “It’s working! Oh my god, I can’t believe it’s working!” 

Mason beamed at his wife, who was so gratified to see the portal in operation that she was now crying tears of joy. He turned to Candy who was still confused. “Sorry, that’s not the portal. Pacifica’s necklace, I enchanted it you see. It detects magic and weird stuff. Your precious test results are fine.”

“Hmph, you could have warned me,” Candy said, making a note of the phenomenon. Her hair suddenly whipped up, moved by an unnatural wind from the portal. Even though the gravity had been normalised there was still an attractive force reaching out, trying to pull anything it could inside. “Alright, shut it off girls. We don’t want to cause any unnecessary risk by leaving the aperture open.”

They did as she asked and pulled down the heavy levers. The blue light dissipated, removing the odd force from the room.

The group grinned at each other, happy with the successful outcome. All except Mabel. For once she was feeling pragmatic. She punctured the cheerful afterglow with a serious statement that made everyone pause. “Now we just have to decide who’s the first person to actually travel to the other side.”

* * *

Choosing the prospective first traveller through the portal wasn’t something those gathered in the basement could decide on alone. The portal’s completion was announced to the wider group assembled in the Shack, then everyone else in the team took turns having a look at their endeavour in action. Ivan in particular spent a long time simply regarding the blue light, as Pacifica had done at first.

Soon all of them were up to date with the state of the project, so Mabel called for a group pizza session in the Shack’s kitchen. Once everyone was gathered there, packed in so tightly you couldn’t move without bumping someone else, the question was opened to the floor for everyone to debate.

Unlike their previous meals together, where there had been a sense of mutual cooperation and understanding while everyone worked on the portal, now tensions were flaring up again. Eli had been the first to offer up his thoughts. “It’s gotta be Wendy, for sure! You’ve all seen her in action, she’s trained for this kind of thing.”

Wendy herself nodded along with this idea but seemed hesitant. After all, she’d been around in Weirdmageddon, and though she didn’t doubt her abilities, she was keenly aware of the risks. Ivan stayed oddly silent during all of Eli’s impassioned debates.

“Hey, maybe I should be the one to do it?” Mabel suggested. “I’m as well-trained as Wendy, plus I have first-hand interdimensional travel cred already!” She was remembering her brief jaunt in the aftermath of Weirdmageddon through a tear in time and space, to a realm filled with hundreds of alternate timeline versions of herself, the same place she’d encountered her dark mirror, Anti-Mabel. She hadn’t stayed long beyond the barrier, but it was still more than anyone else here could say.

“Why can we not just send one of my soldiers, at random?” Rico offered. “Hombres Caiman troops are tough, reliable, and most importantly, heh, replaceable, should something go wrong.” He gave a wicked laugh that few people seated at the table could tell whether was genuine or not.

“Pardon my harsh words, _Uncle_,” Mason sneered, “but I don’t think you know what’s being asked. The mind of any normal person will probably turn to mush when confronted with the kind of things we’ll be up against. Not to mention the fact we should probably send a scientist, someone with a head on his shoulders.”

“Oh, here we go.” Pacifica rolled her eyes. She knew her husband was after a slice of the glory, if only to walk in his Great Uncle’s footsteps. “Enough of the bigheadedness Mace, no offence, but I don’t think you’d be any good in a crisis. If something goes wrong-“ He tried to say something, but she continued to shut him up, “-and I know that it will, then you’ll be useless out there. And I’m not saying that because I want to go through, god no. What about you, Andromeda, you’re sturdy?”

The clone was taken aback by the offer and seemed to shrink somewhat. All the raised voices tonight were more than the poor girl was used to, and the idea of entering the portal wasn’t high on her list of priorities.

However, Candy butted in before Andromeda could give her opinion. “I think the candidate we send should be someone who was present during the event of Weirdmageddon. They’ll be the best equipped for facing the mission.”

“So Wendy _should_ be the obvious choice!” Eli sat back in his chair smugly, like he’d won the debate already.

“Whose side are you on anyway, mister?” Mabel asked. His smug look wavered, then collapsed entirely under Mabel’s harsh gaze. “That’s settled, I should go.”

Mason shook his head emphatically. “No no no, you lack the proper scientific know-how. Maybe Grenda, she’s tough, she was there during-“

“I’m needed to run the experiment on this end,” the bulky engineer responded. 

Mason said a quiet “oh” and stared at his rapidly cooling pizza. So much for that line of attack.

“I could do it.” Bokamoso spoke for the first time, with his arm lazily raised in the air. “Could be pretty fun, I’m sure. Why not?”

“Cause you don’t know what you’re getting into!” Eli stood up now and got up in Bokamoso’s face. “You don’t have training. You don’t know about the Society’s mission. Why are you even here again?” The shaman simply yawned in his face. “Right, that’s it-“

“Cool it!” Mabel rose to intercept the two from scrapping right here in the kitchen. “And don’t think I haven’t missed you, Baldy.”

Ivan suddenly stirred from his blank pondering. “Who, me?”

“That’s right Ivan. I’ve seen the way you’ve been eyeing up the portal. I half get the impression you wanna run off with our portal here and now, screw the testing?”

“The very idea! This is an outrage against my character!”

“What character? The mind-wiping cultist?” Mason offered, not helping to calm the mood. Now the room started to splinter off into several ongoing mini-arguments. Eli was still riled up by Bokamoso’s lack of reaction. Both Mabel and Mason were tearing into Ivan together, with Wendy trying to mediate. Pacifica was shouting her husband’s ear off, trying to make him back down and see sense. All the while Candy was stating the facts of the mission, over and over again as if it would help them come to a rational decision.

Andromeda couldn’t take it. She covered her ears and tried to scrunch up in a ball. All they’d worked for over the long months would be for nothing if they kept arguing like this.

Finally a voice cut through all the shouting. “Shut up!” It was crude, but it had been loud enough to get everyone’s silence. At first they all turned to look at Mason, who’d spoken. But he was as confused as the rest.

They realised their mistake and turned to the kitchen door. Standing framed in the doorway was his young clone, Quattro, already wearing a bulky spacesuit. He held the helmet under one arm. Now that everyone was staring at him, he addressed the crowd.

“Thank you. Now that I have your attention, might I volunteer myself for the mission?” Instantly there was a spluttering of protests as everyone rushed to give reasons why he couldn’t be the one. All Quattro had to do to silence them was raise his palm and give a piercing look. He’d honed that look in his circus act, getting the crowd to settle down and focus on him. It was doing wonders to quell the babble of voices.

“This is how I see it. First, I _was_ around during the whole Weirdmageddon thing. Me and Tracey didn’t know what was really going on and hid out in a cave for the whole time, but I did see the chaos and destruction. My next point: I’m the smallest person here. Ergo, lowest mass, so easiest to do tests on. Low mass, less resistance, easier traversal. I’ve got a lot of strength, I can survive more punishment than a normal human, as long as it’s not water related. Therefore, I’m the best candidate for this momentous occasion.”

There was a momentary silence where everyone wanted to know if he had more to say, before Andromeda started clapping at his speech. “Woo, go Quattro.”

After that, they all accepted his reasoning pretty quickly. Despite appearances, he could take care of himself and had the requisite experience and aptitude. Privately, he’d wanted to do this for a separate reason. Envy.

Only a minor envy of course. Mason had been the one to solve the mysteries of Gravity Falls all those years ago. Now it was his turn to solve the mysteries of the multiverse. How was that for evening the odds?

* * *

“Hadron, give me the stats, how long?”

“Well lookie here, portal charge up to 45%, I reckon! It’ll be online faster than racoon in matin’ season!”

“Hmm, remind me to adjust your use of colloquialisms at some point.” Candy switched her AI companion off and looked through into the main portal space. Quattro was fastening on his helmet, a large bowl-like contraption with a blank visor. This suit was just a prototype for these tests, less streamlined, with better defence against external breaches. Once this test was over they could all move over to Pacifica’s design.

Pacifica herself was fussing over Quattro, checking over his suit and making sure he was ready. Candy reached for the intercom. “That’s alright Pacifica, my readings show that the spacesuit is hermetically sealed now. You don’t have to worry.” She watched Pacifica reluctantly step back from the intrepid clone.

With Grenda and Andromeda back in place by the power regulators, everything was set to begin. She spoke directly through Quattro’s helmet radio. “I’m preparing a constricted gravity funnel as we speak. You’ll simply be able to walk right into the aperture, even though it’s off the ground. Last chance to change your mind, are you ready?” The clone gave a thumbs up through the glass. Although she couldn’t see his expression through the shielded visor, from his body language she could tell that he couldn’t wait another second. 

Though excited, she still had to fill him in on the risks. “Ok, now remember, the accelerator ring embedded in the portal _should_ get you through the buffer dimension in hardly any time. But, you still have to be prepared. The Nightmare Dimension is one we need to circumvent. That means passing through it at least once to establish a foothold on the other side. Do you understand?”

This time Quattro fumbled to turn on his own radio. “Roger Candy. Come on, enough waiting around. I can do this.”

“As you wish. Prepping a 90 second countdown. All non-essential personnel clear the floor. That means you, Pacifica.” The blonde girl was startled, and guiltily passed into the control room.

“Sorry Candy, I was making sure he was ok.”

“He’ll be fine, if anything goes wrong we’ll pull him back early. Like we did with you and Mabel in the Pit, it’s fully tested and safe.”

Pacifica’s handwringing suggested she wasn’t content with that. “But anything could happen! What if he ends up in, like, the Water Dimension or something and melts?”

“Don’t be such a mother hen, Pacifica. Uh, sorry for the use of that term, sensitive area I know.”

Pacifica slumped into the swivel chair next to her. “No, god, you’re right. Ever since we opened the portal for the first time I’ve been on edge. I should remember he’s not a kid, I mean, not really. He’s the same age as Mason, on the inside.”

“And would you be fussing over Mason so much?”

Pacifica snorted. “Yeah right. That dork can handle himself. I don’t know, Quattro looks so innocent-“

“So does Ann, but they’re responsible members of our team. We have to trust that they’ll do their jobs.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Pacifica spun on her chair a few times, with a small knot of worry in her chest. Through the glass she saw the portal spin up to full, bathing them all in the eerie blue and making Pacifica’s pendant spin even through the wall. Candy made the final checks then gave the ok signal.

Quattro floated up towards the portal like he was swimming through the air. “Good luck little guy,” Pacifica mumbled under her breath. Then a second later he was gone, sucked up and fired into hell.

* * *

He regretted it almost immediately. Fear and terror gripped him right from the start, and that was just from the sensation of being dragged in by the portal’s glowing tendrils. Hurtling forwards at what felt like hundreds of miles an hour, he had barely acclimatised to the spinning vortex of energy before being spat out on the other side.

This was the biggest hurdle for entering the portal. A thin dimension spread out between Earth and the rest of the multiverse – which existed in a sort of ‘soup of realities’ where many different planes of existence could intermingle – the Nightmare Realm surrounded and prevented easy access. Once Bill Cipher’s domain, it had been left to rot and fester without his influence. Instead of potentially emptying out and becoming safe, the denizens of this place had run riot and multiplied.

Even though he was being shuttled through at immense speed, nothing could prevent him from experiencing the horrors here.

It was like the whole sky was on fire, like a world where Weirdmageddon never ended. Eldritch faces twisted in front of him, growing from babies to adulthood and finally withering and perishing, all in less time that it took him to blink. Terrifying beasts with ever-shifting forms bent and reshaped themselves, at the whim of the fluid nature of reality. Giants with dozens of limbs, each one ending in different body parts like eyes and ears, grafted on.

Quattro wanted this to end. He couldn’t help but keep his eyes plastered open. He felt it would almost be scarier not knowing what was out there. Resisting the urge to abandon and signal to be pulled back, he committed to seeing the worst of it through.

His body was buffeted by waves of energy: Resistance from the edge of the realm. It didn’t want him to pass through, didn’t want itself to be broken out of. It was like he was coming apart at the seams, pain wracked his paper body. A feeling like icy fingers pressing down on his skull was all he could focus on, so overwhelming was the feeling, so searing was the intensity.

He scrunched up his eyes and cried out at the top of his voice but there was no one to hear him.

Then, just like that, there was silence and peace. His eyes shot open. Instead of the hellish landscape he’d been in before, now he was alone in a cool blue void of stars. They twinkled far off in the distance. No longer shunted forwards by the accelerator, he was suspended in space, floating freely.

He spun around to get a look behind him, as if he could still see the portal and the Shack basement beyond. There was just more empty, serene space. He gave a contented sigh. He was in space! He had gone further than any other human being. He checked a screen built into the wrist of his spacesuit. It was showing a string of numerical coordinates. Gibberish to him, but no doubt vital to Candy’s measurements. With his location tethered, she could now calibrate the accelerator component of the portal so that it always bunnyhopped over the Nightmare Realm.

Their trips through the portal from now on would be free of that terror. He waited, wondering when, or if, someone from the other side would send a signal through to him. Much as he was safe floating around here, he didn’t relish the idea of being stuck on this side of the portal forever more.

Finally a burst of static came from the small speaker embedded into the helmet near his mouth. “Retrieval process underway. We’ll have you back in no time Littler Dipper.” It was Pacifica’s voice. He was happy to hear that she sounded a lot less worried for his sake now. He took one last look at the stars laid out before him. It was the most amazing sight he’d ever laid eyes upon. But he wasn’t sad to be leaving. Soon he’d be back. With everyone else by his side.

* * *

With the first human test successfully completed, the final ramping up for the voyage began. This would be a full total excursion. Everyone was going to come, a full complement of twelve.

They briefly discussed running more tests to be sure that everything was completely safe, prolonging their preparation time. But it was quickly and unanimously decided that there was no point delaying the inevitable. Many of the team already had sufficient experience and training, and those that didn’t could quickly learn on the job. 

Besides, the time felt right. As the Pines twins had always done in the past, they’d be leaving Gravity Falls near the end of August, right before their birthday. This last summer had been different to their previous times in the Falls. There was less time to fully relax with friends and less of the sense of wonder and exploration. This had been a summer with a mission, one that had occupied everyone’s minds too much. There had been a lot of uncertainty too but tempered with determination all around to finish the project. 

Candy and Mason, the unofficial ‘project leads’ gathered everyone together in the largest space in the Shack, the main museum floor. It was time for the final stage of getting ready. Mason coughed into his fist and everyone fell silent. “Alright, now you’re all here we have a lot to run over before we make the jump. First, I want everyone to suit up.” He pointed at a table, laid out on which were folded up survival suits.

Mason already had his suit on to demonstrate. This was Pacifica’s design, a silver and red all-encompassing protection that would keep them safe from whatever bizarre elements they’d encounter. Each one was skin-tight and would be worn over their normal clothes.

Candy started passing the suits around and gave instructions as everyone started getting dressed. “Now, once you put these on, the nano-particle infusion is designed to take stock of your measurements and adjust accordingly for maximum comfort and freedom.”

Mason tapped a small watch-like device worn on the top of his hand, making the suit reform itself around his body shape. It constricted his neck a little too much for comfort. “Ah, looser, looser!” The suit finally settled, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, it takes a little while to match up perfectly.”

Candy continued her lecture. “The outer skin is made of the same material as the Black Hole armour, so some of you will know the kind of punishment they can withstand. They’re completely waterproof too,” she directed at Andromeda and Quattro, “so even in low-power mode you’ll be safe.”

“We’ve also tailored a few personal additions,” Mason went on to say. “Wendy, for your suit we’ve incorporated the density projectors so you can still turn invisible.”

Wendy had already been wearing her black armour to the meeting but was grateful that she’d still be able to use its full capability when in the suit.

As Mabel was finishing getting her suit on, Candy pointed to her wrist. “I took the liberty of adding something extra for you too, May.”

Mabel turned her wrist over to see that the suit had a streamlined version of her grapple gauntlet built in. She admiringly checked over the new extra-strong cable, as well as the projectile launcher, which was now powered by the suit’s own battery instead of compressed air or firing powder.

Mabel looked around, seeing that most of her teammates were now fully suited up. It was odd seeing people like Bokamoso forced into such uniform garb along with all the others. With Eli in his suit, Mabel for the first time saw him somewhat professionally, as a true member of the Society. She had to say she preferred good old ‘slacker Eli’.

Somehow Pacifica looked the most natural of all of them, something Mabel was quick to point out. “That’s a good look for you, weirdly.”

“Don’t call me weirdly,” Pacifica jokingly shot back. “I make anything look good, especially if it’s something I designed myself.” She tapped a switch on her neck, causing a helmet to fold out and cover her whole head. “This is for full vacuum or low O2 environments, as well as the initial transit.” She tapped her neck again and her hair cascaded back out of the open helmet. She also made sure her silver Pine Tree pendant was visible over the suit. She wanted to accessorise, since otherwise the suits left the wearer largely anonymous.

Next Candy directed them to a set of hexagonal cases also on the table. Each one was about the size of a dinner plate. She slid the top panel open on one of them like it was a fancy puzzle box. “These are the equipment packs, everything you need is in one of these. They may look small, but don’t worry. These are Dimensionally Transcendental.”

“Cool!” Mabel’s excitedly picked one of the packs up and turned it over in her hands. “What does that mean?”

“It means it’s bigger on the inside,” Pacifica explained for her benefit. She took the hexagon from Mabel then placed it on her back, where it clamped on like a magnet.

“This is an offshoot of the portal tech itself,” Candy said. “We were able to use a similar principle to enfold a small vortex in the packs to increase our storage space. Very handy; each person can carry a full survival kit with basic camping gear, a tent, food for a few weeks.”

“See, this is what I’m always talking about!” Ivan had interrupted Candy’s speech with his loud proclamation. “This is the kind of the technology that could revolutionise so much. You could keep an entire town’s worth of food supplies in one of these or make transporting bulk goods trivial!”

Candy removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “We’ve had this discussion already Wexler, all portal technology must remain strictly confidential. You know the risks.”

“But if the benefits outweigh them…”

“Enough!” Mason cut the argument short. “You two can have this debate _after_ we complete our primary mission. Until we trace the origin of the signal and Pacifica’s dreams, we all have to work together.”

Ivan said no more, simply taking his pack and attaching it to the suit. But from his angry look Mason could tell he was stewing. It was obvious too how Eli and Wendy had tensed up as if to leap to his defence. Keeping everyone focused on the same goal would be a challenge all in itself.

Mason tried to ignore this feud. He still had to finish the instructions. “Alright, once everyone’s got their packs on we can go over the mission structure. There are several key steps we need to ensure we take at every destination, so we’ll brief you on that before we get into the final portal entrance orientation… uh, Pacifica, are you listening?”

His wife was staring intently down at her necklace. She’d been perfectly calm about the mission a moment ago, but now she had a look that he could only interpret as immense surprise and no small amount of fear. “Pacifica? What’s wrong?”

“It’s spinning.” Everyone turned to look at her. Many of them were confused – they didn’t know about the pendant’s enchantments. She spoke louder to emphasise the point. “My pendant is spinning. It’s only supposed to do that when it’s near something paranormal.” Her head shot down to the floorboards. “Something like…”

A blue glow seeped up from beneath. At the same time, the Shack shook and there was a hum of energy. “Oh my god.” Pacifica ran from the room, frantically making for the elevator down to the basement.

The rest of them stood still, trying to process what was happening. Mason quietly stated the obvious. “Someone’s activated the portal.”

Pacifica burst into the basement. Already through the glass screen she could the see the chamber beyond was lit by the blue glow. She cautiously entered into the next room, then ducked down as a blast of lightning barely missed her head. Her pendant floated rigid before her.

Scared of being sucked into the portal, she retreated to the control room and sat heavily down in the chair. This was very, very wrong. Her quiet moment of shock was ended shortly after as people streamed in. Mason quickly put a reassuring hand on Pacifica’s shoulder. The only others who’d dared come down were Mabel and Candy.

“Oh, this is bad,” Mabel said, understating the problem somewhat.

Candy pressed herself up against the glass. “No no no, it can’t be! Those levers should be in the up position! They can’t be down!” Against cries to halt, Candy stormed into the portal room. Ignoring the wind blowing about, she moved straight to one of the two power levers set up on the side of the portal. She tried to shift it to the off position, but it held in place. Giving her fullest effort didn’t budge it in the slightest.

Mason called to her from the control room. “Forget it Candy, we’ve seen this before. It must be the Tool Maker. He’s trying to force our hand, controlling the switches remotely!”

Static noise sounded beside Pacifica. Mabel pulled out a blocky walkie-talkie and exchanged a quick-fire burst of Spanish. Her face paled. “Oh guys, we have bigger problems. One of Rico’s scouts has spotted a convoy making their way to the Shack. It’s the a-mortals, they’ve finally found us!” A hint of panic crept into her usually calm demeanour. This whole situation was putting everyone on edge.

Mason balled up his fists impotently. “That means we don’t have time to find a way to shut down the portal. They’re coming, and we have to do something!”

“Damn it!” Pacifica finally found her voice. “Is there no way to cut all the power? What if we smash the consoles, start ripping up wires? I refuse to be defeated by these pricks! Candy, talk to me.”

Covering her head, the engineer ran back to the control room. “If we cut power now I don’t know what’ll happen! The safety switches were meant to bring down the power in such a way that would carefully close the portal. If we cut it while the whole thing’s active, it might just blast a hole in reality big enough to wipe the whole Pacific Northwest off the map!”

“And the Pacifica Northwest too, huh.” Mabel’s attempt at levity went down like a lead balloon.

Pacifica tried to think of a solution rapidly. There was only one that she thought would work. “Alright, if we can’t switch it off, let’s use it. When will the portal be at full capacity?”

At first confused, Candy quickly gave her the stats. “There’s a fifteen-minute build-up before the full transfer initiates.”

“Right, then get everyone down here. We’re going ahead no matter what.”

“Pacifica, you can’t be serious,” Mason said incredulously. “The a-mortals are gonna break down the door, we have to cut and run! You know, get everyone out into the woods, maybe hide out in the bunker.”

“Not if we’re careful. We just have to hold out long enough to make the jump. They can’t touch us once we’re on the other side.”

“And what about the portal, huh? Are we just gonna leave it for the a-mortals to scavenge?” He was getting confrontational as he had with Ivan earlier, so now Pacifica put _her_ hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

“Listen to me, this is our once chance to solve this thing. If we don’t go now, the a-mortals will come, and we’ll never be able to try again. Mabel, can you rig something up, with a timer?” Mabel nodded, not used to being asked by Pacifica to purposefully blow something up. “Good, so that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re all suited up, we’ll just have to skip the planning meeting and go straight to zero hour.” The others stood around without moving. She realised that everyone was still hanging on her authoritative word. “Well, what are you waiting for? Move!”

This spurred them into action. Mabel spoke instructions over the radio to the Hombres Caiman, while Mason and Candy hastily checked the portal instrumentation. Pacifica herself headed back upstairs. She’d need to convince everyone else to get down here and prepare. They were charging into a new dimension in less than 15 minutes without knowing what would come next. What else was new?

* * *

Mason made everyone arrange themselves in a semi-circle around the portal. Candy had been able to regulate the portal somewhat, so they wouldn’t accidentally be drawn in prematurely. They had only a few minutes to prep everyone. Mason was slightly worried the shock and the stress might be too great.

Already he could see Andromeda shivering nervously. The poor girl wasn’t an adventurer. She’d needed more time to acclimatise to this kind of thing before being thrust into action. At least the others were staying composed.

He quickly opened the bookshelf in the control room and lifted the pile of books out. He rushed around the semi-circle handing out copies of his journal. Journal 7 was already stowed in his own pack. Leaving even a partial copy of his Calculations behind could lead to disastrous consequences if they fell into enemy hands.

He took his place in the circle, next to Pacifica. She took his hand, but he shook it off. “No, we don’t want to risk a translation error.” He shouted this instruction out louder. “Everyone stand separately or else you might get merged by the transition.” There was a lot of awkward reshuffling of feet after that.

The ring of symbols surrounding the portal’s rim had now sped up to the point where it was just a blur of colours. For Mabel, this was reminding her all too much of the last time a portal had been fully opened, 16 years ago. This time there was no doubt though. They all knew what was coming.

“Alright, helmets on people,” Pacifica instructed. The others did as she’d said, flipping their visors up. “Deep breaths guys.” She’d gone over this part of the plan dozens of times. Obsessed was putting it lightly. Everything in her dreams had led them to this. It had to go perfectly.

The sound of a dull thud came from above, then a moment later there was a tremor that rained dust down on them.

“That was an explosive charge!” Mabel cried out. The repetitive sound of gunfire was audible to all now.

“There’s no time, we have to hold them off.” Wendy lowered her helmet and made to stride towards the door. 

Ivan gripped her shoulder to halt her in her tracks. “You must stay Wendy. Remember the mission.”

“But if we don’t push back they’ll overrun us before the portal has a chance to open! This is what I’ve trained for!”

“No,” he shook his head and pointed at the spinning blue vortex, “That is what you trained for.”

With much hesitation, Wendy stepped back into line. The Pines trio watched curiously as the bald leader of the Society addressed his two young proteges. “Eli, Wendy, you must stay strong without my guidance. Always remember the mission, my children. _Our_ mission takes the highest priority.” They both solemnly nodded and took determined stances facing the portal. “Good luck. I will lead my acolytes into our most glorious battle!”

“As will I.” Rico had removed his helmet as well. “My men will need an inspiring leader to defeat these everlasting devils.”

“Uncle Rico, you can’t!” Mabel was beside him in an instant, hugging the old man tight. “There’s too many of them! You have to come with us.”

“Hush, sobrina, hush. You will do fine without an old relic like your uncle. I’m too old to go flying about in space. Go May, go and streak through the skies of those far-off worlds. I will give you that chance.”

“Uncle Rico!” She couldn’t stop him. The old Colombian glanced briefly at Ivan. They shared an understanding of the gravity of what they were about to do, as well as the likely outcome. They’d do whatever it took to defend their friends. They entered the elevator together. “Rico, no!”

Mabel tried to run after them, and Pacifica and Mason had to forcibly restrain her. Mason found himself raising his voice more than usual, partly to be heard over the noise of the portal. “It’s what they want to do Mabel, let them go! They know what they’re doing, now get over here! They’re going out there to buy us the time we need, and we can’t make this journey without you. _I_ can’t make this journey without you!” Fighting back tears, Mabel gave a small nod and stood in position again. “Thank you. Candy, how long till the jump?”

“I don’t know, at this point the quantum probabilities are too erratic! We just have to wait; it could come any second!”

“Quattro,” Mabel asked as tenderly as she could while shouting over the portal’s screaming whirr, “What does it feel like?”

The small clone tried to answer as best he could. “Honestly? It’s like being torn into little pieces, thrown in a blender, and then launched out a cannon, all at the same time. That probably doesn’t help much.”

Grenda raised her arm. “Uh, is it too late to back out now? I’m having second thoughts, I’m just an engineer!”

“Stay in place, we all have to make it through together!” Mason wasn’t sure he could be heard over the portal anymore. There was also the constant reverberating sound of shots being exchanged in the Shack above. Suddenly the group of ten travellers was lifted off the ground. “It’s the gravity funnel, this is normal!”

Despite what he tried to say, panic erupted in the group. They broke the tight semi-circle, with people floating to congregate in groups. With the suits and helmets on, Mason couldn’t even tell who was hovering where anymore. He didn’t bother calling out to tell them to get back. Nobody would listen even if they could hear him.

Mabel and Pacifica both tried to float relatively close to him as well, ignoring any fears about what could go wrong. They were all too in need of each other’s presence to try and reduce the naked terror of that whirling blue light.

The window to the control room blasted open, scattering shards of glass into the basement which got caught in the portal’s grip and started to float too. Bullets ricocheted and Mason saw armed soldiers breaking through the door. There was nothing any of them could do, held frozen up in the air.

Then it finally happened. The gaping maw of the portal split asunder and gravity’s pull tugged them all towards it. He tried to helplessly resist the pull, but it was obvious that it was too great. The groups of clumped together people started falling into that doorway between realities until the three of them were the last to go.

Despite his own warning, he tried to grip tightly to Pacifica’s hand. Mabel’s was there as well, but he couldn’t reach her in time. The portal rushed towards him. Then they were gone.

It was the end of summer. Time to leave Gravity Falls.

* * *

Hetepheres stepped lightly over the bodies lining the ramshackle hallway. It had been a quick battle, with the military grunts Crane had hired doing most of the work. Now they’d been dismissed, and she could make her way in. A scalpel instead of a club.

As she left the tacky gift stop and began descending to the basement, she noticed that one of the soldiers sprawled out on the floor wasn’t quite dead. He was coughing and trying to stand. She launched a strand of papyrus out like a whip. It coiled around the man’s neck and tightened. His eyes bulged out as he clawed at the paper vice. She moved onwards, secure in the knowledge that the man wouldn’t trouble her.

The old men were the ones who had fought the hardest. She stood over them now, the bald one with his strange tattooed head, and the fat wrinkled soldier. They’d gone down together in a hail of bullets. A pitiful defence really. This wooden structure hadn’t lasted against their assault. It was right at the centre of the clearing, a perfect target.

The Egyptian had to dart out of the way as the elevator opened. A large snake slithered quickly out and away over the fallen bodies. She wasn’t a very good guard dog. Hetepheres sent the lift down into the earth. Her heart was racing, but not from the surprise of the snake.

Some of her troops had breached the basement and reported that the portal was indeed present. Perfect. Their enemies had done their work for them. When the elevator doors split open she could barely contain her excitement. There it was, the bridge, the gateway, the passage to their salvation.

Wherever the Pines and the Society and their allies had gone, they would follow.

A bright orange flash erupted at the top of the basement cavern. It was some kind of timed detonator charge.

Hetepheres opened her mouth in shock and stepped back. The entire portal frame had been blasted off its hinges. Powerless to stop its fall, the Egyptian could only watch in horror as the beautiful machine fell to the floor.

The metal coverings bent and broke off. The vital internal components smashed themselves together. The heavenly blue light at the centre was extinguished. When it was done, there was only a pile of mangled metal.

“No!” They must have left plans, guidelines, blueprints, anything. She hurried back into the control room and found a concealed bookcase. She tore the hatch off its hinges and scoured the inside. There were no books inside, no journals with the knowledge they sought. Just a single scrap of faded brown paper with the words ‘Ad Astra per Aspera’ scrawled on it.

Hetepheres ripped it to shreds with her mind. As the tattered remnants fell like the portal, she smashed her fists down on the panel of monitoring instruments. Again and again she brought her fists down, until the panel was a mess of metal and sparks. “No no no no!”

She’d come so close and had it all ripped away from her. She let out one final cry of anguish into the void. They would not be defeated. The Pines were gone. But they didn’t know what was out there waiting for them.


	28. The Rabbit Hole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inspiration for this chapter originally came from the track 'Field Trip' from Finding Nemo. It inspired a scene right at the end of the chapter, which then spiralled out and helped me come up with the rest. So I guess if you want a soundtrack recommendation for this chapter, try the Finding Nemo soundtrack I guess :P

Chapter 28 – The Rabbit Hole

Tears clouded Mabel’s vision. She struggled to stay conscious as waves of nausea wracked her body and those of her companions. Ten of them in the end, ten had made it through the portal. She wept for those left behind, for Ivan, and most of all her Uncle Rico. Gone to a last stand against the a-mortals.

While the pain of their loss still stung, new sensations were beginning to overwhelm her even more. They’d finally done it. All their work had paid off. They had entered the portal.

She hadn’t known what to expect. At first she guessed it might be like being launched down the Bottomless Pit, a sudden burst of speed all the way through to the other side. Yet this was more like an ever-twisting vortex of energy, with every turn giving her the fear that she might collide with the edge and be torn apart into a million pieces floating around scattered across different parts of reality. It was like the feeling of falling, yes, but also of being stretched and snapping back. Of feeling her body pushed to its limit as colours and lights streamed through her head.

She had to hold on and stay focused. Had to trust that all the effort, all the teamwork, would see them through to the other side.

She tried to call out, to see if anyone else was experiencing this the same way. But she couldn’t hear properly, and no words came out. She couldn’t make out any radio chatter or air whizzing past. She couldn’t even hear her own breathing. There was just a deep crackle coming from all directions, like the build before a clap of thunder that never came.

The outer skin of the vortex buckled and collapsed. A great yawning chasm opened up and four of her teammates flew right into it. She couldn’t even tell who it was who had fallen. Once again the survival suits they all wore blurred the lines and made everyone look the same. The vortex quickly rippled back into place and the rest of them flew onwards unheeded, leaving the lost travellers to whatever fate had befallen them.

Another singular traveller shot down a side passage, flying out of sight in seconds. Mabel thought she saw a fleeting glimpse of an opening down that passage, another world about to receive a visitor from Earth. Two more companions were dragged upwards together. Given the small size of one of them it could only be Quattro. She hoped whoever he’d ended up beside would take care of him.

Now she was left with only two of the ones who’d set out such a short time ago. So little time and they’d already broken apart. There hadn’t been enough time to coordinate or set a proper destination for the portal where they could all arrive safely.

At least she recognised the two teammates she was left with. She’d have recognised their tight embrace anywhere. Mason and Pacifica, holding onto each other, even through this nightmarish journey. She prayed that wherever she exited in the multiverse that they would land somewhere nearby.

Then she too felt the portal drag her down and out. The two people she most wanted to be with continued to hurtle down the spinning vortex away from her. Then Mabel wasn’t flying any longer. She was falling.

* * *

At first when Mason and Pacifica left the portal and re-entered normal space it was hard to tell the difference. Carried forward by the momentum, there was nothing to slow them down. They simply flew onwards at incredible speed.

They’d been spat out together at least, holding on tightly all the way. “Pacifica? Are you alright?”

“I… I think so. All my limbs are still attached at least.” He could tell she was smirking behind the hazy visor.

“That’s not funny. We entered without any destination coordinates keyed in. We could be anywhere.”

“I don’t see anyone else either.” Pacifica had her back to the direction of travel. She couldn’t see any sign of the portal opening back the way they’d come. Even if they foolishly wanted to go back, there was no stopping their forward motion. “Do you think… they made it too?”

Mason was stoically silent, looking ahead and not wanting to ask those kinds of questions. “We have to figure out some way to slow our drift. I thought we programmed this in. We were only supposed to be able to arrive at somewhere with near-Earth conditions. This just looks like the vacuum of space, there’s nothing… oh no.”

“What, what is it?” Pacifica tried to crane her head around to see what had him worried.

“Paz, hold on!” He clutched her body even closer to his, then ducked his head down.

Before Pacifica could ask again, she felt a small sting on the back of her neck, like something small had been thrown at her. Then again, another hit on her back, and another. Then a large chunk of rock hit her in the arm and bounced off. “Ow! That’s gonna leave a mark. What the hell is- ah!”

She’d been hit side on in the back by a much larger rock. It sent them spinning around and around. Pacifica saw now that there were floating rocks everywhere. It was an asteroid field. They were peppered with yet more rogue projectiles. The hailstorm battered down on them relentlessly. There was nothing they could do but endure the pain until they passed through the field.

They carried on forwards, their suits taking more damage. Small tears started to form, and Mason feared they’d be exposed to the vacuum. Pacifica knew better, knew that the suits had a protective base layer that should preserve their atmosphere and keep them safe. It wouldn’t protect from anything physical though, as the pain from the rocks was proving.

Another rock sent them spinning back in the opposite direction. Both of them felt incredibly dizzy, and with all the lingering effects from their portal jump were worried about throwing up inside the suits.

Mercifully, the rocks pelting down on them eventually slowed their spin. Now they were serenely drifting in a slow circle around each other, still moving inexorably through space.

Mason gave a deep sigh. “Alright, I think that’s the worst of it. In fact, I think that’s curbed our momentum. We’re slowly decelerating. Thank god we didn’t hit anything bigger than ourselves.”

“I don’t think it’s the size that matters, Mace.”

“What do you mean?” She’d turned her face away. “Pacifica?”

“I can hear a hissing inside my suit. I designed these things Mason, I know where the oxygen is stored. There’s a small canister on the back of the neck. It even has a rebreather function; it’s supposed to take in ambient oxygen to passively refill. But none of that matters…”

She turned her head around to give him a look. Right beneath the base of the helmet was the canister she’d mentioned. There was nasty tear right through it. Probably caused by a sharp angled meteor that had ripped it in one clean move.

“These suits have an auto-repair though, right?” Mason asked quickly. “That’ll fix it, everything will patch itself up. Right?”

“Yeah, the oxygen tank will fix itself… after I’ve lost enough air to breathe.”

Mason started panicking, his own breathing speeding up. “There must be something we can do! It’s only a small rupture, how much air is in that thing?”

“I’m not sure. We never tested them in the field. When would we have had time?” She ran her hand over the forehead of her helmet. “I mean, Christ, we were so rushed out of the Shack that we all got lost on the first jump. Now we’re alone, lost in space… Everything’s gone wrong.”

Mason tried to take in their new surroundings, looking around for some sign, some key to their salvation. A planet they could land on perhaps. Something, anything to help them.

The only thing out there as far as he could see was an inky blackness, punctuated by a few distant lights he assumed must be stars. He should have felt accomplished in this moment. He had matched Ford and stepped beyond the bounds of Earth. Yet they’d lost so much. The team had broken apart, their way home was gone. They only had each other.

Mason hugged his wife tightly. Right now it was all he had the power to do. “We’ll find a way Pacifica. If we just hold on, I’m sure of it.” Pacifica didn’t reply on the intercom. He heard the background noise through her speaker though. A constant, ever-present hissing.

* * *

Mabel awoke to the sight of cracked glass, steamed up with her breath. She didn’t know how long she’d been lying there. Her whole body felt sore, particularly one of her arms. Even the bullet wound in her shoulder from 8 months ago was aching.

She narrowed her eyes to try and focus beyond the broken visor of her helmet. In front of her was a column of noxious yellow steam, belching out of the ground in a constant flow. She had to get up and figure out where she was. She sat up, then clutched her right arm in pain.

Her suit had a massive gash in the side, completely open to the air. She remembered her landing now. She’d come out of the portal at an angle to the surface and skimmed along the terrain. With how jagged the brown rocks around her landing site were, she was lucky she hadn’t been hurt worse. Though the suit was heavily damaged, she only had a small cut on her arm. Whatever this thing she was wearing was made of must have taken the brunt of the impact.

The hole was gaping wide open though, and she was worried with how exposed it felt. She could even see some of her arm tattoos, in particular one of a happy smiling star giving a double thumbs up. The words ‘Hey now I’m an All-Star!’ were written beside it.

Of all the tattoos to be reminded of, it would be this one. Oddly enough, her Great Uncle Ford, usually a serious man, had the same tattoo on his neck. She’d gotten it in tribute to him. The memory of Ford made her realise: She’d gone through the portal. So where was she now?

She got up and tried to study the landscape, but the annoying crack in her visor made it tricky to see. The pressure seal was already broken, and she was able to breathe just fine, so she tapped the button to fold her useless helmet away. She wondered where the helmet actually went. Maybe it went into some pocket vortex that was bigger on the inside, like their backpacks. What had Candy said? Transdimensionally Incidental? Something like that.

Dipper or Pacifica would know. She looked around and saw there was no-one else here. Nobody else had made it to this planet. She was struck by an immense wave of loneliness. All the others were gone, disappeared off diverging paths in the portal. They could be anywhere in time and space. She was stuck on this miserable rock, just Mabel, alone.

Suddenly the feeling of loss was overtaken by something new. It had occurred to her that, yes, she wasn’t on Earth anymore. She was somewhere _else_. She took a few tentative deeper breaths now that her helmet was down. It was acrid, but tolerable.

Forgetting all her worries, she cried out. “I’m on an alien planet! Oh my gosh!” A whole world no human had ever set foot on. She was the first. Even though the sickly fumes being pumped out from the rock made each breath taste bitter, it was still incredible just to be here. “Look at me! Mabel Pines, an astronaut! If Mom and Dad could see me now!”

The only disappointment of this brave new world was the sky, which was just a regular dull blue. Not even any funky moons or junk like that! There was however something odd about it. Like the sky was ‘thicker’ than the one she was used to. It was more layered, sort of like a cloud, bending and twisting rather than static.

She was on another planet. But she still had to be practical. At a time like this she couldn’t afford to be distracted by the sheer fact of being here. Not seeing for the forest for the trees could be lethal. She hadn’t survived all around the world for five years by getting dazzled by flashy surface aspects. She had to figure out what her next step would be. Mason had never given instructions for what to once they were actually inside the multiverse.

She quickly checked over the rest of her suit for more tears or rips, but only her arm was damaged. She was safe, the air wasn’t toxic (at least not immediately), there wasn’t any other life here as far as she could tell. Yet she couldn’t linger. Her skin might start reacting to the atmosphere, or maybe the suit had an air filter that might break down.

She also had to think long-term on how best to proceed. She had no clue how to track the unusual signal that had caused them to travel into the portal in the first place. Would she even be able to reach its origin?

Checking her suit again, she noticed a small disc on the top of her palm. It was a small touchscreen. She tapped it, and a red triangle with an exclamation mark flared up. She tapped it again. The same response. Whatever function this part of the suit was responsible for must be offline.

There was a larger screen built into the suit’s wrist that did seem to be working at least. There was a simple display, much like Candy’s laptop screen when it had shown the three journals down the Bottomless Pit. Some kind of map readout then? There was a single blue flashing light at the map’s centre. Out of curiosity, she pressed it.

The map zoomed out, displaying what she assumed to be the local terrain. There were vast scars through the landscape, like channels of rock splitting the skin of the planet. Eventually the map zoomed out far enough to the point where two more flashing lights appeared at its edge. One red and purple. 

If she was the blue trace, then that meant that the other two traces must be others from the team. She didn’t even have to hope, she _knew_ which other two people were on the same planet. She stared at the horizon in the direction of the traces. It would take a long time to cover this undulating rocky landscape.

“Dipper, Pacifica… I’m coming for you.”

By the time Mabel neared the two traces, her legs felt like jelly. She’d come over so many jutting outcrops and crevasses, the hike had lasted hours longer than if the terrain had been flat. It might be amazing, wondrous, utterly magical, to be on another world.

But this planet was stretching her patience thin. She checked her wrist screen for the fifth time in the last 10 minutes. It was becoming a compulsion like constantly checking a watch. She was close now; the traces were only few more minutes away. As she’d been making her way over, the purple and red markers had been slowly moving as well, heading in the same direction she was walking along. Did that mean the two of them didn’t know about the map in their suits? Was there something else keeping them slowly moving ever onwards?

Maybe it wasn’t even Mason and Pacifica after all. It might be someone else, like Andromeda, or Bokamoso, who didn’t know how the suits worked and were completely lost for guidance. Still, having anyone from the team alongside her would be an improvement.

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, Mabel picked up her pace and practically ran the rest of the way towards the traces. It was torturous to wait any longer in doubt. Just over the ridge, then she’d see them. “I’m here! Guys, I’ve made it.”

She got almost down on hands and knees to scrabble over the rocky ground before finally cresting the ridge. She took an expectant breath and looked out over the plain.

Nothing. There was nobody there waiting for her. Just more ugly, brown rocks. She desperately checked the map again. Her blue marker was right on top of their signal. Where were they?!

“Ah! It’s not fair!” She kicked at the columns of stone, breaking them into small pieces that rolled away down the cracks in the larger rocky plateaus. “I can’t go back to that again! Don’t leave me alone like this.”

She crouched down and rocked on her haunches, trying to stem a flood of tears that she’d been holding back for far too long. The dumb goal to follow the traces had kept her from focusing on it, but now there was nothing stopping her from feeling the pain. Her Uncle Rico was gone. Ivan, much as she’d detested him at times, had taken the same path.

Now everyone else was lost. If they weren’t here, they could be anywhere in all of reality. She couldn’t face the weight of the mission and the losses on her own. There had to be something she could do, some way to reach out and find them across the gaping void. But if she couldn’t track the signal that had brought them here in the first place, the signal that was strong enough to reach out beyond the multiverse, then what hope did she have for finding her family.

The sound of a rock fall brought her back to reality. Her senses were instantly trained on the disturbance. She panned around nervously. So far she hadn’t seen any living beings, but if she could breathe the air safely then it stood to reason that other creatures could too.

A nearby pile of rocks clattered to the ground. Mabel raised her arm in a practiced motion, gauntlet at the ready. “Come out,” she called warily. Something darted across the plateau at high speed. She reacted by letting off a shot. Sparks of blue light exploded where the creature had been moments before. Her arm juddered back. “Woah, that’s quite a kick.” Candy’s upgrade to her launcher must have incorporated a smaller version of Wendy’s advanced Black Hole laser blaster. She’d have to try and remember that, so she didn’t accidentally explode someone’s head off instead of merely stunning them.

The creature she’d missed halted, down in a small crevasse. It had nowhere to go but back up into her sights. Surprisingly, it poked its head out almost instantly. She didn’t have time to get more than a glimpse, but whatever it was seemed as curious at her as she was at it.

She lowered her arm. Hands wide, she approached the crack in the earth. “Hey, you can come out. I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m Mabel” She put her hand on her chest. “Mabel.”

Her coaxing seemed to work, as the creature – the alien, as the thought struck her – emerged, head-first. It had a small rounded head, with a large snout in the middle of the face. Cute floppy ears and the fact that it barely came up to her waist made her relax. The creature was like a pig, but with green skin and standing on two legs. The creature’s arms however deviated from that pattern. Slimy tentacles reached down to the ground and trailed along. She also nearly burst out laughing when she saw the piglet had a mohawk.

It approached cautiously, making a snorting noise. It was trying to communicate. She tried to do the same. “Hi. It’s Mabel, who are you?”

She got more snorting and oinking in reply. Fearing this first encounter was about to go nowhere, Mabel’s wrist suddenly started blaring out speech. The suit shot off a string of greetings in various languages, some of which she was already capable of speaking. “_Hello, bonjour, hola, ni hao, konichiwa, shorah…_” Then it started on languages she wasn’t familiar with, alien ones that Candy must have programmed in somehow, before ending with a vague series of clicks she assumed meant ‘hi’.

The creature withdrew slightly at the babble of languages. Annoyed at her suit, she slapped the wrist touchscreen, trying to get it to stop. “Stupid thing. What is this, a translator? Give me pig-ese! What the-” Her voice suddenly came out deeper and wavered in an artificial way. “Woah, no, that’s horrible.” It now sounded exactly like the Black Hole’s modulated speech, not a voice she was particularly fond of. It was clearly scaring the squid piglet too.

Successfully switching the modulator off, she tried to show the alien she was friendly. “Please, that was an accident. I’m not from around here.”

This time when the pig tried to snort a response, her suit captured a recording of the sound and played it back. Some kind of programme appeared on her wrist-screen, showing the sound file being sampled and processed. Then it played the sound file back. “You are… a friend?” It was in seamless English.

“Wow, this suit really can do everything.” Anything the squidlet said was now filtered through her suit and heard in English in real-time, now that it had assimilated the alien dialect. “So, let’s try it again.” She held out her hand. “I’m Mabel.”

The squidlet shook her hand with a slimy tentacle. “I’m one of the refugees.”

“Refugees? From what? You know, I owned a pig once, you remind me of-”

Mabel had to jump back as a spear landed in the ground between them. She once again raised her fists to fight. Another squidlet was climbing over the ridge nearby. This one had a bushy beard and numerous scars across his face. “Pakira, what have I told you. We do not speak with outsiders.”

“Sorry, Kephalos.” The younger squidlet bowed his head. “But look, she isn’t an outsider! She’s called Mabel, and she has the mark!”

“The mark?” 

Mabel felt scrutinised as the younger pig, Pakira, pointed to her arm, right at the tear in her suit. “There, you see! She is one of us!”

The elderly pig’s eyes widened at the sight. “By my beard. You’re right. She is the All-Star.”

Mabel stared incredulously down at her tattoo, with its goofy grin. “You guys recognise this?!”

As she was staring at her arm, she also noticed something odd. The hole in her suit was smaller than before, she was sure of it. Astonishingly, silver fibres moved and grew at the edge of the hole, weaving a mesh to cover the damaged section. It must be an auto repair feature. Candy had said something about nano particles in the suits.

Kephalos retrieved his spear and used it like a walking stick to close the distance to Mabel. Eyes narrowed, he nonetheless accepted her tattoo as genuine. “Apologies for my strike. You did attack my nephew first, however.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Mabel said, rubbing her neck, “So what’s you guys’ deal? I gotta say, you look adorable!” She pinched the younger squidlets cheeks, making him giggle.

Kephalos rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, we’re cute, get it out of your system. We are refugees. From the Nightmare Realm.”

Mabel took this very seriously. “So you know about Bill-“

“Yes, we know all about him.” Kephalos interrupted her and waved a tentacle in her face. “My very own grandfather fought a rear-guard defence at the battle of the Quadrangle.”

“Our people are miners now,” Pakira continued. “This world is very rich in minerals around the gas vents. Of course, we were miners before, as well. Before the Nightmare Realm. Our homeworld drifted too close you see, and… well, the elders say it was…” He seemed too scared to carry on.

“I believe ‘blended’, is the term they used.” Kephalos seemed much less afraid of the tale. “The planet broke up as it passed into that dimension, disintegrating and being dispersed across the membrane. After that we joined up with those other beings who’d been scattered around the dimension, trying to scavenge a new life.”

“That’s horrible.” Mabel knew all too well the casual horrors Bill Cipher had been capable of inflicting. This one spoke to his indifference – A whole world destroyed by accident, simply because his realm was too close by. “So what’s this tattoo got to do with anything? My Great Uncle Ford had the same one, that’s where I got the design from.”

“Ah, the symbol, yes.” Kephalos rubbed his tentacle over the tattoo, still exposed beneath the rapidly re-sealing outer suit. Mabel pulled her arm away, uncomfortable with all the slime from the squidlet’s touch. “Ford Pines came to us many generations ago. We gave him that mark as a sign to other beings of the realm. It showed he was one of us, not aligned with Cipher. “

“When last we heard, Pines had gone to kill Cipher. Not long after that we were liberated!” Pakira raised his spear in a kind of salute and cheered.

Mabel smiled inwardly, knowing that the day Ford had gone to confront Bill was also the day he’d been brought back home by Stan. She felt immense pride in having helped save these squidlets from an inadvertent worse fate.

Kephalos nodded sagely. “It is good you bore the mark as well, Mabel. Had you not, my nephew would have slain you on sight.”

“Uh, thanks?” Somehow Mabel couldn’t picture the cheerful squidlet even scratching her, let alone bringing her down. “I’m glad we’re on the same page now anyway. You’re locals. I don’t suppose you can help my find my friends?”

The two short aliens nodded, then comically started looking up and down as if they could spot Mason and Pacifica lying around somewhere nearby. Great, Mabel thought, so much for getting local help to find them. She looked again at the map. As before, her blue trace was right on top of the purple and red ones. As the two squidlets failed to help in anyway, she wracked her brain for a solution. They should be right here, this exact spot. Her eye caught a wisp of smoke that was seeping out of a nearby crack in the rocks, drifting her gaze upwards.

If she wasn’t on top of them… maybe it was the other way around? She craned her head fully upwards, then excitedly shouted to her companions. “Hey, Green Eggs and Ham! I think I found my friends!”

* * *

“Take some of my air, Pacifica.” Mason had finished hooking a small pipe to the side of Pacifica’s helmet.

She shook her head adamantly. “No, don’t be stupid! You don’t have to waste your life for my benefit.”

“I don’t think you understand, Paz. I’m not leaving you. If one of us goes down, then both of us do. You’ll last longer with my air, now take it.” She relented and let him transfer his own precious supply into her canister. It would still inevitably drain out, but at least they had a bit longer together.

As Mason and Pacifica had floated onwards, the space around them became lighter and lighter. Now, instead of mere darkness beyond, they drifted through what looked like a thick, light blue mist. While they had still been able, Mason had tried to map the few faint stars they could see. All he could tell was that he didn’t recognise any of the constellations. They truly were far from home.

“How long do you think we have?” Pacifica asked. “I don’t wanna rush you to come up with a solution. But the air’s getting kind of thin in here.” Despite trying to minimise her breathing rate it hadn’t helped much. Fast or slow, she was going to lose it all eventually.

Mason did some calculations in his head then answered. “I’m not sure.”

“Don’t lie to me Mace. I can tell, you’re awful at it.” She stared at him through the glass. “Please, we don’t have long left, be honest.”

His eyes glanced away, unwilling to face her reaction. “Half an hour, maybe less. I’ve done a chemical analysis on our surroundings as well.” He gestured at the blue cloud. “It’s water. Good old H20. Ironically if we did take out helmets off right now, we wouldn’t just suffocate. We’d drown. How about that?”

“To be honest Mason, that doesn’t really make me feel much better about our impending doom.”

He gave a deep sigh, now a use of a precious resource. “I’m sorry. I know I can’t really lighten the mood. I feel so helpless! Everything was going as planned, then-“

“Don’t cut yourself up about the attack. It was gonna happen sooner or later. None of us are to blame.”

“I know. But it doesn’t make it hurt less.” He rested his forehead against hers. Their two helmets bumped together. It was the closest they could get.

“Do you think the others made it?” Pacifica had been scared to ask that question before. With what they could remember of the chaos of the portal, they’d seen the others fly off in different directions. Travelling between dimensions wasn’t a smooth ride at the best of times. It had done the two of them in, after all.

“I don’t know. I guess we just have to hope they did.” That was all Mason could offer. Hope. That’s all he had to save themselves as well.

A deep vibration sounded out through the mist. Mason became alert and started scanning their surroundings for what had caused the noise. Pacifica was too tired to look up. Mason gasped when something appeared through the blue cloud.

At first he thought it was another meteor, so massive and resolute it was. But it was moving of its own accord, a giant living creature. It could have swallowed them whole in a single bite. Another great vibration came from it, a sonorous call of deepening notes. “It’s a whale. A space whale!”

“Not just that. Look.” Pacifica tried to raise her arm to point but it flopped back down. Mason tried to guess where she wanted him to look. Then he spotted it. Instead of a tail or flippers, the creature had dozens of tentacles at the rear, twisting through the cloud and propelling it forwards.

Mason shed a single tear as the majestic otherworldly creature moved forwards, its multi-faceted eyes barely registering their presence. “Well Pacifica, at least we have this. I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing that.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Look at us. Two human beings, out here. No one else gets to see this. Just the two of us.” He felt Pacifica try and overcome her exhaustion to hold him tighter. “As long as we live, I’ll remember that sight.” The slow giant began to float back into the mist and out of sight. “Wow. It must live in this cloud and sort of ‘swim’ through it. Isn’t that amazing? Pacifica?”

He felt Pacifica’s grip on him begin to loosen. She gave a low moan and rested her head on his chest. “Pacifica? Paz! You have to wake up, don’t give up now!” He tried to raise her head and look into her eyes, but they were already shut.

Her last few breaths fogged up the visor. Mason tried to funnel more air into her suit, but it wasn’t enough. Her tank was already too empty. “No, Pacifica, please.” More tears flowed down his face. “I can’t do this alone. We’ll always be together, to the end.” A part of him was sorely tempted to remove his own helmet here and now, to give in and join his wife’s eternal sleep.

Another massive squid whale passed by them. It was a smaller specimen that moved much faster. It was also a lot closer. Mason suddenly feared that another might collide with them. Instead of running out of air, they might end up as whale food.

“Princess, please. I need you.” She simply continued to serenely sleep, using up the last of her oxygen, an inexorable march to the end. Another giant alien faded into view right in front of them. This was it, he thought. He closed his eyes, ready to follow Pacifica into her dreams.

A bright light shone behind his eyelids. Cautiously, he reopened his eyes. He must be getting delirious from oxygen deprivation. It looked like one of the whales had a searchlight instead of an eye. He and Pacifica were illuminated in its gaze. The giant approached them.

He raised a pitiful hand to ward it off. Then he realised the creature wasn’t one of the whales. It wasn’t a _creature_ at all. He could make out a skin of rusting metal. It was a ship, made to look like one of the squid whales. Through a glass window where the eyes would have been, he could see someone. Someone smiling.

A hatch on the top of the ship opened up. Drawn by some force, Mason and Pacifica’s forward momentum was finally fully halted. They floated towards the opening. As they entered its bright embrace, Mason too finally gave into unconsciousness.

* * *

Mason slowly woke up, hearing muffled voices. “They were out there for some time, I’m not sure-“

“Have to reintroduce them slowly, don’t want to-“

“Dipper, please wake up.”

At last his eyelids fluttered open. Of all the people to see, he couldn’t have been happier to see his sister standing above him with a wary grin. “M-Mabel? Is that you?”

“It’s ok, get up slowly.” She helped into a sitting position. His vision returning, he saw that they were in the cockpit of the ship that had rescued them. It was as rusty and battered inside as it had been outside.

He suddenly remembered that he hadn’t been alone before feinting. “Pacifica?! Where is she?!”

Mabel held him down as he panicked. “It’s ok, we’ve got her, she’ll be alright.” Mabel pointed to where she was lying, hair fallen wildly around her now that the helmet was off. Even in her sleep she was greedily gulping in breaths.

Mason went over to her and rubbed her forehead. “Paz, we’re safe. We did it.”

“Five more minutes Mason,” she groggily intoned.

He laughed giddily, and then picked her up and spun her around the room. “I can’t believe you’re alright!”

Still drowsy, she parted her messy hair to get a clear look at him. “Easy there, I nearly died, remember.”

“Come here.” They pressed their lips together, the first time they’d been able to touch each other beneath the suits in far too long.

“What happened anyway? The last thing I remember was seeing that big alien whale.”

“Mabel found us.” He turned to sister, ecstatic to see her again. “How did you-“

Mabel cut him off by pointing to the seats at the front of the cockpit. Two squat, green-skinned pig aliens were steering the ship. “We used echolocation to find you in the cloud. The Squales use it too, for finding their way around.” She hugged Mason and Pacifica. “I couldn’t leave you two to get into trouble on your own, could I?”

The three of them stayed in that tight embrace, reunited after everything they’d been through. Mason looked his sister in the eye. “Thank you Mabel. So much.” Pacifica proudly looked at the twins, standing side by side. In a stark contrast to only a few months before, both of them were immensely happy to be together again.

“Miss Pines, we’ve got something for you.” The pig with the bushy beard gestured for the trio to come over to a viewscreen. Outside, they could see the blue mists. Then one of the Squales rose up from beneath them.

Then another, and another. Dozens of the giant beasts, a whole pod, swam and played through the cloud. The younger ones twisted and spun, splashing around in vast swoops and dives that sent water flying. 

Mabel found Mason and Pacifica’s hands. The three silent observers stared out in wonder at the sight, observers to a grand cosmic migration the likes of which they’d never seen before and never would again. As creatures larger than the entire Mystery Shack danced in the light, their first impression of the multiverse was cemented. Finally the pod drifted out of sight, lost behind the thick watery mists.

Standing in the hull of a spaceship, drifting within a suspended cloud of water, the Pines had made it. They’d opened the portal and come through intact on the other side. And they’d done it together.


	29. The Multiverse

Resting in the small living area on the squidlets spaceship, the trio had time to recover from the mad rush that had been their entry into the portal. First the a-mortal attack, the dangerous experience of the transit itself, then their first arrival in perilous straits. Now they finally had a moment to stop and think.

Mabel had whipped them up a special mushroom broth she’d learnt to rely on when travelling, an easy to make recipe that was very filling, even if it tasted rather bland. They tended to their wounds – Mason and Pacifica had taken some nasty bruises in the asteroid field. Mabel’s damaged suit had finished repairing itself, and they’d patched up and refilled Pacifica’s oxygen tank.

Even though it was nice to slow down and get used to their new surroundings, the three of them were beginning to get antsy. After three days being shuttled around by the two squidlets, they were about ready to move on. It was time to begin the next phase of the quest.

While Mabel and Pacifica drank what was left of the broth, Mason set to work on calibrating their suits for what came next. “Alright ladies, it’s time to get this show on the road. Now, Candy and I didn’t have time to go over this before we entered the portal, so there’s quite a bit to cover. First I direct you to the device on the top of the palm.”

“Wait, that’s no good bro.” Mabel pointed at the odd disc, like a watch. “When I was messing around trying to learn about the suit it wouldn’t work. Kept throwing error warnings at me.”

Mason thought on the matter, then came to a conclusion. “Ah, no, I get it. That’s not a problem. This little device is the key to travelling through the multiverse.”

“What,” Pacifica asked, “you mean we _won’t_ be going on a space road-trip with our little piggy friends?”

“That would take us eons to traverse the whole multiverse. This is a comparatively quicker option.”

“I thought we were looking for the signal. The one my dreams are all about these days.”

“We are, we are, I’m getting to that. Now, the multiverse is still pretty large, I’ll grant you, but compared to our own universe it’s miniscule. It’s more a nexus, a melting pot between other realities. Grenda in particular worked on the principle behind this. Since this reality is much smaller than our own, we can use portal tech to leapfrog within it.”

He tapped the screen and all three of their suits synced up. Instead of the red warning Mabel had seen, there was now a small graphic on her hand showing a circle contained within an inverted triangle. The symbol of the portal.

“These will propel us onwards through the multiverse. I call it the mini-portal-“

“What, that’s such a boring name!” Mabel protested. She was already sticking out her tongue, thinking of alternative ideas. “We should call it something cool, like the Portaliser, or the side-step watch!”

“Ugh, does it matter?” Pacifica wasn’t interested in a long debate. “Let’s just call them hoppers and be done with it.” Both twins muttered out a quiet, ‘fine’. “Alright. Now Mason, Mabel said her one wasn’t working before.”

“Ah yes, that’s not a bug, it’s a feature. At each destination the devices will have to recharge, as well as calibrating our coordinates. I’d say both take a few hours to complete. Once those two processes are done, we can jump on to the next point in the multiverse, until we have a detailed enough triangulation to pinpoint the source of our mysterious signal.”

Pacifica looked doubtfully at the device. “How long will that take? Jumping about randomly, it’ll be like we’re back going around the world with no goal.”

“This time every stop will have significance. When we land, the device will detect the signal from a new point of view. Given the faintness of the original source, I reckon we’ll have to log a large number of vectors before we can pinpoint it with any accuracy.”

“That could take weeks, months!” Pacifica protested before sighing deeply. “But, that seems to be our lives in a nutshell. Isn’t this a bit risky though? If the jumps are truly random we might end up landing in the middle of a star, or back in space again, or somewhere ever worse.”

“Ah, well, you see, about that. I factored that in originally. The hoppers are meant to filter so that we only arrive in places with Earth-like conditions.”

“Then how come you two ended up doing the space-tango on your first trip?” Mabel understandably asked.

“I… forgot to factor in gravity, ok. That cloud of water we passed near must have been Earth-like enough to register as ‘safe’ for us to visit. I’ve corrected it now.”

“Uh huh.” Pacifica crossed her arms doubtfully. “Well it seems like an easy enough job. We just warp in, wait around, warp to the next place.”

“The trouble comes from whether the places we warp to are safe,” Mabel said. She was oddly pensive about the plan. While she trusted in her brother’s strategy, she knew it wasn’t without risks. “Even if we go to planets or dimensions that are ‘Earth-like’… well, you know how much danger we got into back home. Do I have to spell out the rest?”

The three of them fell silent. They all got the idea. Mason tried to break the silence with more explaining. “I’ve synched our three units together, so we’ll all be tracing the same probability curve. That means we’ll all end up travelling together, within a certain tolerance. No getting scattered like our initial arrival.”

“What about the others then?” Pacifica asked. They’d planned to travel as a large group, but now the seven teammates they’d entered with were lost who knows where. “Is there some way we can find them? And what about getting home once we’re done, there’s no way back with the portal destroyed.”

“One thing at a time Paz. For now let’s just work on tracking the signal and getting to the bottom of that mystery.” Mason said it as if it was the end of the conversation. From his tone of voice, both Mabel and Pacifica got the distinct impression he was trying to cover the fact that he had absolutely no idea whatsoever whether their friends were even still alive.

“So much for our birthday week,” he said with an air of despondency.

“Oh my gosh, I completely forgot!” Mabel was devastated by this reminder. “I had a whole party planned for everyone. It would’ve been lovely.” Flustered, she took on a look of concentration. “When actually is the day, I’ve lost track. How long were you in space?”

Mason waved off her guilt. “Ah, don’t cut yourself up about it. To be totally fair, there was _a lot_ going on.” That seemed to calm her down.

Her mood was lowered again shortly after. “It doesn’t matter,” Pacifica stated bluntly. “Look, being here in the multiverse isn’t a happy trip to a magical place. Our lives are on the line here, maybe everyone’s lives.” Both twins were taken aback by her harsh tone. Pacifica was being much less accommodating than usual. “We have to suck it up and pull ourselves together. Otherwise we’ll never get out of this mess. Got it?”

Mason and Mabel shrunk under her piercing glare. They knew not to mess with Pacifica when she was in a serious mood. Nodding meekly, they each wondered why she was acting this way.

“Well, our birthday was always a little bit of a mixed bag anyway.” Mason said, trying to soften her words. "End of summer and having to leave the Falls, and all that. And it’s not like being 29 is particularly special.”

“Yeah, we’re 30 next year,” Mabel said, spirits once again lifted. “That’s so much cooler, three decades!”

That did raise a small chuckle from Pacifica; only Mabel could find the idea of getting older fun.

Mason coughed to get their attention back on the important matters. “Look guys, things might not be perfect, but there’s no time like the present. I say we start.” He held out his hand with his fist facing upwards showing the screen. “Ready?”

“Always.” Mabel put her hand on top of her brother’s.

Pacifica shrugged. “It’s better than being pig passengers.” She placed her hand in the middle. With all three of them prepared, she tapped the screen of the warping device. A series of high-pitched trills sounded. Then it was like falling into the portal all over again, as they were swept out of the ship and back into the tides of the multiverse.

* * *

The trio burst onto a new world with a thunderclap. Immediately Pacifica doubled over, nearly retching on the purple ground. She quickly lost her balance, unstable on this new terrain. When she hit the ground she slid across it someway before stopping.

Something about the gentle slide had calmed her churning insides. Struggling on the icy plain, she got unsteadily to her feet. The twins had thankfully landed quite nearby. Mabel was effortlessly skating circles around her brother, who had given up and slouched on his rear-end.

Gingerly, Pacifica made her way across the purple ice to join them. She took in the new world they’d arrived on. There wasn’t much to see beyond this vast glacial expanse. A golden Aurora spun languidly in the sky. It was night now, she noted. Time wasn’t something constant they could rely on when traveling between different planes of reality itself.

“Guys, did your stomachs do a double back-flip or was it just me?” Pacifica asked.

Mason grimaced and nodded. “Me too. I think that’s gonna be a recurring theme sadly. These portal jumps take their toll. It’ll be a while before we adjust to it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I feel totally fine.” Mabel was so sure of her balance on the ice that she’d closed her eyes. Now she was humming to herself smugly. Why was it Mabel could be so clumsy in most mundane situations, yet in complete control on an alien iceball?

Stifling a surge of envy, Pacifica checked her hopper to see what it would look like right after a jump. To her mild surprise it had already recharged. She flashed it to Mason. “Hey, what’s the deal? I thought you said it could take hours to recharge.”

“I programmed it to only do a short hop, so it’s a bit easier on our bodies to start with. Plus since it doesn’t take as long to recharge we can get used to the proper procedure faster. I _do_ think ahead sometimes, you know,” he said with an over-the-top wink in Pacifica’s direction.

She frostily ignored him and took another look around their sparse surroundings. She stuck out her chin. “There’s nothing here. No point sticking around. Onwards?”

“Onwards!” Mabel had scooted up behind her and grabbed a hold to steady herself. She reached over and slapped Pacifica’s hopper before she had a chance to hesitate. Then they were gone from the icy plain, that whole world with its biomes and mysteries that they’d barely explored for less than a minute.

Another world. This one was inhabited. They’d arrived in the middle of a town square. And it was raining. Hard.

Here the rain beat down so strongly that all the buildings they’d appeared near had reinforced metal rooves to stay up. The trio, still dazed from the hop, rushed for the shelter of a nearby awning. Mason shouted to be heard over the downpour. “Incredible, we’ve arrived in the middle of a thriving civilization! Must be hardy folk to endure this weather!”

“What?!” Mabel shouted in response.

“I said the people here must be-“

“What?!”

Pacifica facepalmed. “You two are insufferable sometimes.” Her hopper was already powered up. These short hops might be good for acclimatising, but they probably didn’t help triangulate the source much. “Time to go!” she yelled. Her shout was perfectly audible over the rain. She knew how to get people’s attention.

Mason looked torn. “But we haven’t even met the inhabitants yet. Think of what we could learn if-“

“Button it, I’m not going out in this weather. My hair will get ruined.”

Disappointed, Mason activated his hopper. Pacifica chose to stay a moment to watch his disappearance. He stretched away to a point then vanished in a flash. She watched Mabel do the same, it was like her body became distorted moments before the actual departure. Then it was her turn to follow in their footsteps.

“Short hop, you said! Quick recharge time, you said!”

“Yeah, well, I made a mistake, ok! Ah, duck Pacifica!”

She launched herself into the undergrowth, narrowly avoiding a tree trunk tossed in her direction. Lying in a puddle of water, she struggled to get back on her feet. It was so hot in this rainforest that every movement made her drip with sweat, it was worse than the rain world.

There was another loud crash which she wasn’t sure whether was lightning or the creature pursuing them. More of the smaller Rhino-crabs scuttled past her, fleeing their larger cousin. She turned to try and see the enormous monster but received only a splash in the face as she turned around.

Mason had fallen into the same boggy puddle. “Run run run!” He pulled her up and they laboured through the jungle.

“Where’s Mabel got to?”

“She’s back there with the adult Rhino-crab. I think she’s trying to ride that thing!”

Sure enough, when Pacifica glimpsed the hulking crustacean through the trees, there was Mabel, clinging on tight to the primary horn and swaying wildly about. The creature’s legs shuffled around like it was drunk, toppling trees like matchsticks and cleaving a path through the jungle in its wake.

“I’m amazed that thing evolved in such an enclosed environment!” Mason breathlessly intoned. The heat was getting to him too.

Pacifica shoved her husband in the back to get him to run faster. “You can catalogue it in the journal later, dork! I’m trying to avoid getting skewered!”

Heralded by a roar from the gargantuan Rhino-crab, Mabel came hurtling through the trees and collided with her brother. The twins rolled over in a messy heap. Mabel stuck her head up and grinned madly. “Guys, I think I’m starting to bring it down!” The creature roared again and crushed the trees in the path to its slippery prey. Mabel raised her fists. “Lemme at him, I’ll show him who’s boss!”

Pacifica stole a glance at her hopper. “Forget it sis, we’re out of here. Thank Christ.” She flashed the recharged device at Mabel, who sadly pouted. She’d been raring to fight. Mason on the other hand was relieved. Before even being prompted he’d slapped his hopper and vanished in a blue burst of light.

Pacifica gave Mabel a stern glare to make sure she didn’t stick around to go another round with the pincers and the horn. Despite her puppy dog eyes showing a desire to slow down, she couldn’t hold up against one of Pacifica’s patented stares. So the two girls moved on once again, leaving a hungry Rhino-crab and a few miles of trampled rainforest as the only indication they’d ever been there.

On and on they went, crossing countless worlds that first day. A planet with no solid ground, only bouncy gelatinous plateaus. A world shrouded in mists, with tall, needle-like protrusions of stone peeking out. A world with a race of beings who stood no taller than one of their feet – and had crowded round and made a large spectacle of three giants visiting their town.

They never stayed long. Only long enough to fill in the next corner of their map and recharge the hoppers. Even in this small corner of the multiverse, relative as that scale was in trans-dimensional terms, the variety they encountered was staggering. There was no clue what they’d encounter next.

As the day wore on, Pacifica’s irritableness seemed to grow and grow. Neither twin could pinpoint the reason for her moody turn. It was true that most of the worlds they’d passed through on that first day hadn’t been the safest. They’d done their fair share of dodging both deadly creatures and harsh environments. But even then, they’d stayed in worse places back on Earth itself.

She kept pushing them forwards, ready to leap on the moment the hoppers recharged.

* * *

Eventually, after several more ‘short hops’, Pacifica called a halt to their journeying. “Alright, stop, stop here.”

The open grassy field they’d arrived in was much more pleasant to look at than some of their previous destinations. Flowers poked out from the meadow under a warm blue sky. Though her body clock was telling her it was late, the glorious sunshine put her at odds with her natural impulse to want to fall asleep. The only sign of any advanced life were a few free-standing stone columns, mostly crumbling and overgrown with vines.

Yet even here there was a snake in the garden. As Pacifica led the three of the over to one of the fallen columns, some of the daisies they passed reached out and tried to snap at them. Like miniature Venus flytraps, the flowers on this world were carnivorous.

Pacifica sat on the column and crossed her arms. “Right, that’s it. We need a break. No more hopping until we can rest. Ugh, and these stupid flowers!” She kicked one of the plants biting at her heels.

The twins looked at each other. Sure, they were worn out from all the jumping about, but Pacifica was being more grumpy than usual, even for her. The whole attitude they’d picked up from her suggested she was royally annoyed with everything that had transpired since arriving on the squidlet’s ship. It was very unlike how she’d been at the start of their round-the-world trip, where she’d had a cautious optimism to explore her dreams driving her forwards.

“Pacifica, is everything alright with you?” Mason tried to ask lightly. He didn’t want to say something that might offend her more.

“Yeah,” Mabel said, “you’ve been kinda – what’s the word? Oh yeah! A big fat jerk!”

“Mabel!” Mason was shocked by his sister’s lack of conduct. Antagonising each other would only lead to things ending up like they’d been before their reunion last September – cold and hostile.

Pacifica didn’t react to Mabel’s outburst, more interested in studying her nails. “Can someone do something about that noise?” The sound of the daisies snapping their jaws could be heard all over the meadow.

Mason coughed into his fist. “Do it. Please.”

Mabel rolled her eyes, then Pacifica watched curiously as she started stretching her arms. Then she brought her hands together and muttered something under her breath. A purple mist formed around Mabel’s hands. She clapped and called out a spell. “Somnis!” In a small radius around herself the flowers flopped over, like their strings had been cut, leading to a merciful silence. “That better, Paz?” Mabel said with an air of condescension.

Pacifica nodded curtly, ignoring how her Pine Tree pendant lightly spun as a reaction to the spell. “Indeed.” Then, out of nowhere, she broke into a massive grin. “Now we have some peace and quiet I can finally show you what I’ve been waiting for. Your faces were priceless.”

“What?” both twins spluttered out at once.

Still smiling cheerily, Pacifica reached around and unclamped her hexagonal backpack. She slid the top panel off and reached inside. She pulled something out but quickly hid it behind her back. “These packs might not have truly ‘infinite’ space, but there was enough room for me to bring this.” 

She held up her free hand in an admission of guilt. “I know I’ve been an ass today. Trust me, I do realise when I slide back into those tendencies. Getting used to this hopping stuff is hard, and I wanted to make sure we all had what it takes. But now it’s time we all relaxed. Mason, what time is it?”

Suddenly put on the spot, he looked at his wrist in search of a watch but saw only his hopper. “Uh, I have no idea. Local time, I’d say the sun suggests it’s about midday.”

Pacifica turned to Mabel. “Do you have any idea what time it is?” The other twin pulled a mystified face. “I thought not. God, you two, it’s a good thing I’m around.”

“Paz, you’re not making a lick of sense,” Mabel said. “What’s going on? What time _is_ it?”

Pacifica looked back and forth between the twins, barely containing a smile and hoping one of them would figure it out. Sighing when it became clear they were none the wiser, she theatrically pulled out the package from behind her back. “Surprise! Happy birthday you two lovable idiots!”

Wobbling precariously in her hands was a cake covered in sloppy blue icing. The top was covered in a fire hazard’s worth of lit candles. “I baked it myself. So none of that moaning or _pretending_ it tastes great. You’re gonna eat it and it’s gonna be delicious,” she said assertively.

Mason and Mabel took the cake. They looked at each other briefly, then started grinning wildly. They grabbed handfuls of the cake, not waiting to slice it properly, and shovelled them into their mouths. Mabel tried to talk over a mouthful. “This is amazing Paz!”

“That’s just the start.” Pacifica had grabbed something else out of her pack, a large box covered in purple wrapping paper. Judging by the haphazard nature of the wrapping, Pacifica had done it herself, by hand. The twins finished their chunks of cake and set the rest down for later.

As if on cue, Mabel started tearing into the wrapping paper with a mad zeal. “Hey, I spent 4 hours getting that ready!” Pacifica protested. Mason gave a weak shrug as an apology. She started laughing. “Alright, enjoy. It’s your birthday after all.”

“I’m amazed you remembered at all!” Mason said adoringly. “We’d both forgotten completely. And you even managed to keep track of the time.”

Pacifica nodded, beaming with pride. “Uh huh, a few minutes ago we just passed midnight on the 30th of August, so now it’s officially your birthday. Oh, don’t be so surprised,” she said when both twins stopped to give her impressed looks. “You think I ever survived growing up with my kind of busy schedule as a kid without being able to keep a good track of time? Anyway, enough about me, go on, see what I packed for you. I had a feeling we might have to leave Gravity Falls at short notice, so I gathered everything a few days in advance.”

Mabel finished removing the wrapping paper and hurled it aside. Pacifica had brought them a hefty cardboard box filled with items. She reached in and picked the first one out, a weighty book covered in hastily applied glitter. “A new scrapbook! Oh wow, thanks Paz. I totally left my summer one behind.” She flipped through quickly, looking forward to filling all the blank spaces with new, exciting memories, then tucked the book under her arm.

The next item she pulled out was clearly another gift for Mabel, based on the bright pink bow and excess of glittery packaging. Pacifica and Mason chuckled as she tore it open in another whirl of activity.

“You know me, I’m awful at knowing what to get you guys,” Pacifica admitted. “So I asked around, and Bo told me about how you were getting really invested in your magic training.” Mabel finished opening her present and found a paper scroll inside, closed with a pink seal. “You should feel honoured, that _thing_ took a lot of hard grift to get. Had to go past the Unicorn grove and into the Crawlspace. Got it off a sleazy merchant, some old hag with a lot of spare hands.”

Mason raised an eyebrow. “When did you do all this?”

“I had a lot of spare time after I finished designing the suits. I wasn’t gonna lift a finger to help with all that tough, exhausting construction work. What’s a girl to do but go on a solo trip into the woods for a friend.” She shrugged as if it was nothing, but Mason felt a surge of pride.

“Neato”, Mabel said. “What does it do?” She turned the scroll over, staring down it like a telescope.

“It’s a magic enhancer. You can ‘supercharge’ any spell and make it stronger. It’s a one-time use only though, so keep it safe until you really need it.”

Mabel nodded, understanding the significance. Then she hugged Pacifica. “It’s exactly what I wanted sis. You’ve gotten better at this over the years, I remember when I was 15 and you got me a saddle for my birthday. I didn’t even have a horse – and Waddles was never big enough to ride!”

“Heh, yeah, I wasn’t the best at that sort of thing back then.” Pacifica rubbed her neck, then, smiling, turned to Mason. “You on the other hand were much easier to get a gift for, Mr predictable.”

Mason reached into the box of presents and picked up the small item. “A $15 online gift card?” 

Pacifica snatched it away from him. “No, dummy, that’s just something I got as extra.” She rolled her eyes and Mabel did the same, both girls laughing at Mason’s cluelessness. Pacifica passed him the real main present, which was wrapped in dark blue paper with stars and rockets on it. “It was ‘spacey’ wrapping paper, I don’t know. Look inside, go on!”

Mason unwrapped the gift to find a finely crafted wooden box within. He unclasped the lid and found a set of pens and ink within. He lovingly picked up one of the pens and turned it around in his hand, studying it. “For me?”

“For your journals. I know how much you love those stinking books. I think more than me, sometimes,” she said teasingly.

“I wish I’d got something this nice for you. Though that meal we had was nice.” On Pacifica’s birthday, back in May shortly after airing all the private details of their failed hopes for having a child to Mabel, the three of them had an understated evening dinner together at a high-end restaurant. It was quiet and relaxed – exactly what the couple needed after bringing up those heartaches. But now, placing the pen back in the box in his hands, he’d wished he’d gotten her something more personal to keep as well.

Mabel nudged him in the side. “You can pay her back next year bro, ha!” she said with a wink. “Wait, what’s this?” Frowning, she retrieved a mass of red wool from the box. She held it all open and saw it was one of her knitted sweaters. There was a letter D stitched on the chest. Mabel seemed confused to find it here

“Oh that,” Pacifica explained. “I found it in your bedroom with a label marked ‘_Super secret Dipper B-day surprise_’. Thought you’d want to bring it along.”

“Ha! You were right! Dipper, you’ll look so great in this!”

“I brought my llama sweater too, so we can all match up.”

Mason stared at his wife with a look that said ‘gee, thanks _so much_’, then took the sweater with a grimace. “Wow Mabel. It’s… really something.” Inwardly he was mildly guilty, since he hadn’t got Mabel anything in return, even something simple like the symbolic gesture this sweater represented. He made a mental note to make that up to her as soon as he could in the near future.

The last things in the birthday box, beneath a host of cards written by everyone who’d been staying in the Mystery Shack over the summer, were Ford’s three journals, stacked on top of each other with number 3’s golden hand on top. Mason picked up the book and felt a weight he hadn’t even noticed before disappearing off his chest. In the panic of their departure he’d left the journals behind, leaving a massive risk of the a-mortals getting their hands on the blueprints inside. 

He almost felt on the verge of tears, how proud he was of Pacifica’s initiative. “Oh, Pacifica. This is all so wonderful.” He laid a tender kiss on her lips. She wrapped her arms around him and leant into it, savouring this brief moment of respite.

Then she sighed and took Journal 3 from her husband and spoke more seriously. “It’s not over yet though. It took your uncle Stanford 30 years to get home after all. We’ve barely even begun our mission.” There was a solemn silence as the twins appreciated the depth of her words. “But we can worry about that tomorrow!”

She blew a noisy party blower in Mason’s face then handed one to each of the twins. “Bet this is the weirdest place you’ve ever celebrated your birthday before.”

The three of them spent the rest of the day in the sunny meadow, staying cool in the shade of the broken columns and playing party games together. Though their hoppers had long since recharged, none of them felt a strong urge to continue. It was a day of celebration, to unwind and simply be a family.

Compared to the twins’ last birthday, which had been spent thousands of miles apart, this was a definite improvement.


	30. The Consumed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The setting for this chapter was inspired by a playthrough of Dear Esther I did some months ago. I felt like trying to capture some of the evocative imagery of that game would be an interesting test of my writing skills, as well being a cool environment to put the trio in.
> 
> I guess if you want a musical atmosphere to set the mood for this one, then you could do worse than checking out Jessica Curry's exquisite soundtrack to Dear Esther.

An icy wind blew in from the sea. The chill caused Pacifica to jolt awake. She was lying on cold sand, staring up at another new sky. There were no strange planets or moons in this particular sky, just a sweep of clouds, dark blue but tinged a burnt sienna by an unseen sun.

Hearing the sound of nearby waves crashing against the shore, she stood up to explore her new surroundings. She was in a crescent shaped bay, fenced in on all sides by high cliffs and the endless grey sea ahead of her. It wasn’t the first time she’d arrived on a new world unconscious. They must have passed through turbulence in the vortex on their way here.

She didn’t see Mason or Mabel nearby, but the beach was far from empty. Lying on the sand like a beached whale with guts spilling out and taking up half the bay was a ruined spaceship. Cargo was strewn all up the beach, an ecological nightmare of garbage and broken containers.

Though there was movement down near the wreck, given how tall the figures were, they weren’t her travelling companions. She checked her suit’s map and, sure enough – two traces somewhere inland, behind the insurmountable cliffs.

Calibrate and Recharge. Calibrate and Recharge. The two words that dictated their every action, restricting them every time they arrived on a new world. Sometimes it only took a matter of minutes for the two processes to complete, other times they dithered for hours. It all depended on how far the random jump took them.

She also couldn’t move on without the others. If one of them got stranded somehow and left behind when they hopped, there was no way back. Their journey through this string of worlds was a relentless march forward.

At least it was better than their last quest, across their own planet, back home. That had been a chase, always frantically moving to stay ahead of their pursuer and never sure where they were going next. This current quest was motivated by a pure desire to find the answers they sought for so long, every trip bringing them a small way closer to that goal. 

The goal of finally ending these persistent dreams. They hadn’t stopped, even after entering the portal. She no longer dreamt of the triangle and circle, nor the green eye now she knew its significance. But other elements remained. The painted wheel of symbols in the cave still visited her regularly. Now the glyph at the centre was almost always an ouroboros. Worst of all she still saw the burning most nights, whole worlds aflame. These visions had even started appearing to her mid-hop. Something about the transit between planes of reality must be similar to the liminal state her mind drifted into when asleep.

Trying to push those matters back in the recesses of her mind, Pacifica strode down the beach to greet whoever else had washed up on this desolate shore. Might as well do something to pass the time. There were two of them, scuttling around the fallen ship and seemingly taking stock of their scattered cargo.

Pacifica called out to the shipwrecked mariners. “Hey! Are you guys ok?” The two of them immediately stood tall and stock still when they heard her. Now that she was close, she could tell that these were unlike any aliens she’d met before. 

They were tall, about 8 or 9ft, with slender, frail-looking bodies and bent legs like a goat’s. They had pale milky white skin. Oval shaped heads sat on the top of a thin neck. They had no mouths or eyes to speak of, just that smooth flesh. The only thing she thought might be sensory organs were sets of long tubes running along the sides of their ‘faces’, as lacking as the term felt. They were like whiskers, but much thicker and more rigid.

With how thin their bodies were, Pacifica thought they might be insectoid. She waited for either of them to respond to her presence, watching the whisker tubes twitch. When they spoke, rather than words coming directly from them, it was if the air around her was vibrating in a deep tone. “Hello, mammal. I am Bortran. This is my pair-bonded, Calamar.”

Trying to come up with what to say, she thought to herself, “You can do this Pacifica, first contact. If Mabel can make friends with a bunch of green pigs, you can handle this easily.”

“I’m Pacifica,” she said out loud, projecting an air of authority. “You guys crash landed here? I’m kinda stuck here too, for now.” She idly wondered if Mason had built in some kind of ‘carry along’ feature into their hoppers. If these two really were stranded, then maybe they could take them along, drop them off somewhere more civilised. “Do you know what this place is?”

The two aliens turned to each other and wiggled their whiskers in a way Pacifica took to mean they were conferring on something. Since the two aliens had no distinguishing features, she could only identify them by the sounds of their voices. “It is a whirlpool. Lost things end up here. Lost things like my ill-besotted partner and I.” This voice caused the air to vibrate with a higher pitch, more feminine and different from the first voice, so it must be Calamar’s.

“So you’re not locals. I’m not from around here either. _What_ are you two exactly?”

This time Bortran spoke. “We are the Grown. We grow together, as one. Growing in the shade and the cool.”

“_Grow_? What do you mean by that, you keep saying it over and over.”

“Apologies, it… it is hard to convey these terms through simple auditory means,” Calamar said. “Our own language is much easier in which to discuss the higher ideals.”

“How are you speaking? Those… protrusions, I guess, on your faces?” Although, she supposed, since they lacked eyes she might not be able to properly explain that to them either.

One of the two Grown seemed to grasp her meaning and moved its whiskers in a slower motion than before. Instead of hearing a voice, the air in front of Pacifica shimmered like a heat haze. “You can manipulate the wavelengths of the air around you? I’m sure Mason will be fascinated to learn all about you.”

“Mason?” Calamar asked. “A builder of structure?”

“No, that’s my job.” Even when talking to aliens she couldn’t escape the puns on her husband’s name. “This is getting confusing. I guess you could say he’s my, what did you call it – Pair-bonded. Give me second, he might want to know about this.”

She reached into her backpack and pulled out her llama journal. It had occurred to her to write this down, in case she forgot all the details. Since the aliens communicated so differently, she felt like rambling out loud.

“So you call yourselves ‘the Grown’, at least in our language. Maybe you’re some kind of fungus-based lifeform, that’d make sense. You two might look like mutant stick-insects, but I can’t deny it’s fascinating figuring all this out. I see why Mason likes all this deductive stuff so much, like putting together a puzzle. Building structure, huh.” She shook her head. “God, when did I become such a nerd? Mabel would be making so much fun of me if she were here.”

She halted her writing and addressed the two aliens directly again. “Hey, that’s a good question. Do either you know what this island is like beyond those cliffs?”

Bortran and Calamar quickly spoke to each other in secret again. “There is nothing but the caves,” Bortran said.

“Nothing at all.” Calamar nodded eagerly. “This world is empty. Perfect for the Grown to thrive.”

“Thrive?” Pacifica frowned. “So you came here on purpose? It wasn’t an accident?” The aliens didn’t respond. She closed her journal. “You two had better start explaining everything from the beginning.”

* * *

Feeling damp and cold, the new place Mason found himself in was not the most hospitable. The walls of the cave he’d materialised inside glistened with a thin sheen of water, and he could hear it trickling through multiple gaps in the rock. 

The influence of the water was visible everywhere. The cave was filled with hundreds – no, thousands – of stalactites hanging down from the ceiling, most paired with stalagmites growing up to meet them. Dipper had been caving before; Gravity Falls had no shortage of dark tunnels to explore and both Stan and Ford had enjoyed the opportunity to give him some practical expeditions. But with dark or merely dull grey rocks, with barely a handful of unique features, they were nothing like the cave he was in now.

This passage was lit by the eerie green glow of limestone. There were also pockets of bioluminescent mushrooms, shading other parts of the cave in a soft blue. The interplay of colours was honestly quite pretty, but it felt like a prison cell. He had to squeeze his way through the stalactites just to move out of the tiny alcove where he’d woken up.

There was no sign of the girls anywhere, though his scanner showed they weren’t too far off. Getting to them was the problem. Underground he couldn’t move in a straight line to reach them. It could take hours of navigating these twisting passages and he still might not get to them. There was always the possibility they’d landed in a completely disconnected part of the caverns. If things got bad enough he might have to just hop onwards and hope they followed to the next world.

A gust of freezing air blew through the cave, before being sucked back out again. A few minutes later and the same phenomena repeated itself. It was like the caves were _breathing_, but that was nonsense. Surely?

He finally reached a part of the cave with no thin pillars to block his way. There was only a straight narrow fissure. He could just about fit through if he shambled sideways up the tunnel. Another blast of cold air. He detected sea salt in the wind. Maybe this whole network of caves was underwater.

He reached a point where he couldn’t continue. The rocks pressed in too tightly and try as he might, he couldn’t slip through. In his attempt to move forwards he rattled something with his foot. Looking down at the object he’d inadvertently kicked, he quickly regretted it.

It was a skeleton. Obviously not human, but it was close enough to make him feel a chill greater than any sea breeze. The bones were clean, had been here for a long time. Mason decided that a hasty retreat might be the safest option.

Unfortunately, when he tried to shift out of the passage, his heart stopped from fear. He couldn’t do it. He was trapped between the rock walls. How was that possible? He’d been able to get inside; he should be able to get back the way he’d come.

In his frantic searching around for a way out, a drop of water hit him in the face. Then another. The walls around him began to practically gush with water. So much so that he started to feel completely drenched. His hair clung to his forehead, partly now from sweat caused by his panic. The wind whistled and the water poured, and Mason could do nothing to get out.

He looked back towards the cave he’d arrived in, seeing the stalactites and stalagmites and the warm light as more inviting now. But that too sent a chill down his spine. In time with the flow of wind, the stalactites like ranks of teeth slowly lowered and rose again.

He cried out as the cave walls pressed down on him even harder. It was more than a pile of inanimate rock. This place was alive. And he was its next meal.

* * *

Tired of lying on her back and making sandcastles – or at least vague piles of soggy sand – to pass the time, Pacifica was relieved when she saw one of the twins bounding down towards her from over by the cliffs. At first she couldn’t tell which of them it was; at that distance they looked too similar. As they approached, she realised the hair was too long to belong to her husband. “Mabel, good to see you. What kept you? Oh, and say hi to our fungus friends.”

“You would not believe the day I’ve been having sister. I think I know how you and Dip must have felt when you were lost in space.” 

Mabel’s hair, long and uncut in the last few months, was frizzy from damp. She plopped down beside Pacifica. “I got stuck in this passage down in the caves, a really tight tunnel.” She started breathing and speaking faster. “I couldn’t move at first, I thought I was gonna end up trapped down there, on my own!”

Pacifica put her hand on Mabel’s shoulder, trying to calm her obviously rattled friend. “It’s ok Mabel, you got out. We just have to find your brother now.” Pacifica tried to see where Mabel had emerged from. The cliff wall presented a continuous solid front. How had she made it out?

“So who are our friends? Locals?”

“No, they’re as new to this place as we are. They call themselves the Grown.” She pointed to one of the two spindly aliens, who were now setting up some kind of device on the beach. “I think that one is Bortran, the one over there, she’s Calamar. Although I don’t think they actually even have separate genders. I’ve just been calling them he and she because it’s convenient.”

“The Grown? They look like someone dried out a cat and made it stand upright, yuck. Fungus, you said? I saw some glowing mushrooms when I was underground. Never woulda found my way out without them leading the way.”

“Yeah, that’s why they’re here. These caves are supposedly ideal. Dark, moist, perfect for their kind of life. Well, almost perfect.”

“What do you mean?” Mabel narrowed her eyes at the pair of aliens.

“See that chunky box they’re setting up? They told me it’s an all-in-one biome converter. The caves are nice, but they want this whole world to suit them.”

“Ugh, terraformers,” Mabel spat. “That’s horrible. They’re gonna steamroll over this place! There’s only two of them though. Seems bit small for an invasion force.”

“Oh, they can do it, trust me. They’re not normally humanoid you see, it’s a ‘mobility form’. When they want to reproduce they can burst and release millions of spores. This whole place will be covered in new Grown in a matter of days.”

“And pity anyone who likes this place the way it is.” Mabel kicked at the sand dejectedly. “At least there’s no sentient life.”

“Calamar claimed they were refugees.” Mabel blew a raspberry and paced around the beach. “You don’t trust them? I thought you trusted everyone.”

“I don’t know, I’m not fond of colonisers much. They should try and coexist with nature, not bend it to their whim.”

“Spoken like a true tree-hugger. You should start a campaign,” Pacifica teased. Even in space Mabel had the capacity for that insufferable moral crusading. “Look, it’s not our problem. We just wait for Mason, then we leave. Easy.”

Beneath their feet, the beach rumbled. “Yeah, easy. Right.” The whole island rumbled again, as if it was a small earthquake, something Mabel was familiar with growing up in California. “Uh, Pacifica. What’s this?” Mabel had picked something up that had drifted in from the sea. She thought it was just loose cargo at first, but when Mabel shook the water off she saw it was a piece of paper.

The paper was covered in a vague scrawl. If it was a language it was a very unusual one, looking more like a blur of scribbles than recognisable text. There was also a large smudge taking up half the page that she thought was meant to be an illustration.

Another page washed up beside the first. Then more, sweeping up over the beach. Pacifica checked another one. A large bold header, more unreadable text, and a central image. “Does this remind you of anything Mabel?” Pacifica opened her llama journal to a random page. Sure enough it had a very similar layout to these suddenly appearing pages, with a clear title and a sketch of whatever bizarre monster they’d encountered.

“You don’t think… this has something to do with Dipper?” She checked over at the Grown, but they were still obliviously carrying on as before. Without eyes they couldn’t even detect the pages that had drifted onto the beach.

Pacifica’s eye scanned the cliffs, searching again for the opening Mabel must have escaped through. The wind picked up, whipping her hair into her face. It had been perfectly calm mere moments before. Picking the hair out of her eyes, she gasped as cracks in the cliff began to open up. The speeding air flowed into the gaps in the rock, like a vast inhaling of the lungs. Then the cliffs sealed up again just as quickly. Mabel must have slipped out during the last ‘breath’.

There was a commotion on the beach, over by the Grown. Things were appearing out of the sand, pushing their way up. One of the creatures emerged near Pacifica and Mabel. It had a dark blue shell, which Pacifica recognised. “This is one of the burrowers we ran into in India!”

“Maybe they come from space originally?” Mabel offered. Pacifica doubted that. There was something very off about this whole thing. “Paz, look at the sky!”

Pointing upwards with her mouth agape, Mabel was getting more overcome by confusion with every passing second. Up above, Pacifica saw that the cloudy grey and orange sky had been swept away, replaced with a starscape. That wouldn’t have been so unusual, night could’ve crept up on them. No, it was the comically over-exaggerated constellation taking up the majority of the sky that stood out to the two girls.

Neither of them had to say the name of the constellation out loud. Mabel let out a quiet statement. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure this has everything to do with Dipper. Oh man.”

With Ursa Major shining down on them, the gears in Pacifica’s mind turned rapidly. Mason was most likely in the caves as well. Those oddly moist caves that moved like they were alive. Add to that the cliffs that breathed. If Mason was trapped inside the island, and now manifestations of his memory were running all over the beach… 

She saw the Grown were preparing to activate their terraforming device and her heart started beating faster and faster. “Oh no. No no no!” She started careening across the beach towards the aliens, desperate to intervene.

“Pacifica? What’s wrong, what is it?!” 

Ignoring Mabel’s cries, Pacifica started yelling at the two fungus creatures. “Stop! Right now, do not activate that device!”

The aliens chirped at each other, wiggling their face whiskers rapidly. “Stand back mammal, the fruiting bud is nearly ready.” Bortran tried to push her back, but the slender arms were weak enough for Pacifica to stand in place.

“This isn’t just a normal island! If you switch that thing on-“

“Silence! We must proceed. The homeworld is poisoned, we require another. This one will adapt easily.”

“That’s just it, I know why!” Brushing past the aliens, she picked the metal terraforming box off the sand. “This island is alive!”

“Of course it is,“ Calamar stated matter-of-factly. “Not just the island. This whole dimension is sentient. It absorbs that which it takes in, making the new growth a part of itself. Much easier to colonise than a barren lifeless world.”

“You were deliberately gonna leech off this place?!” Mabel had marched up beside Pacifica. Now she was getting a display of her friend’s full righteous anger in action. “You’re parasites! Go live somewhere else.”

Pacifica lifted the box over her head, threatening to drop it. “None of you understand. Mabel, you saw all those journal pages. It’s some kind of reaction to… well, I dread to think what Mason’s going through.” Privately she was worried for her husband’s wellbeing. But she had to bury that feeling for now. His signal was still showing, and he’d made it out of worse scrapes before. “If this island takes on aspects of what it devours, imagine the strain when it tries to absorb millions of spores, all at once. You felt the indigestion from just one person!”

As if to emphasise her point, the beach shook again. “Sounds like it’s hungry,” Mabel gulped. “Quick, how recharged are our hoppers, maybe we can-“ She stopped, watching in pure bafflement as one of the two fungus aliens started folding up its body.

First their legs bunched up in an overpowered crouch, followed by the arms contorting and bending inwards. The bulbous head engorged, reincorporating the body into protein to fuel itself. All that was left at the end of the process was a single egg-like spheroid, larger than the other Grown’s entire body.

“Let the budding commence!” Calamar, the one who still had arms and legs, raised her hands to beckon the coming event. The white skin of Bortran’s orb rippled and flexed, about to break. “If we cannot morph this world, we shall simply have to overrun it. This is the way of all flesh.”

“Don’t you dare!” Pacifica put her foot down and gave her most accusing glare. But of course, the alien couldn’t actually see her, only sense the vague outline with her whiskers. Pacifica and Mabel stood back before Bortran exploded.

Like dust illuminated in a strip of sunlight, the beach was now covered in floating spores. Caught in the wind, they were blown all around, settling across the sands. Bortran’s remains sadly deflated beneath the new life.

“You idiots!” Pacifica grabbed Calamar and started shaking her. “Do you realise what you’ve done?!”

“We have spread! It is wonderful.” 

Pacifica felt a gust of wind blow inwards from the sea. She knew what that meant, and the thought terrified her. The cliffs parted, and the wind carried most of the spores into the interior of the island. “It’s stupid, that’s what! Woah.” The island shook strongly enough to make her and the Grown fall over. Mabel helped Pacifica back to her feet. “It’s starting.” A massive mushroom shot out of the beach nearby, sending some of the scattered cargo flying in its wake. Wherever the spores landed, more mushrooms popped up.

“That doesn’t seem natural,” said Mabel in a concerned tone.

“The new Grown! What has happened?!” Calamar, still prone on the sand, was twitching her whiskers nervously.

Pacifica knew what was happening. This wasn’t the spores. They couldn’t grow to adulthood that fast. This was the island, absorbing the Grown and taking on their form. As the mushrooms burst out of the sand in their dozens, the island continued to shake. The cliffs opened again to let in another gust of wind. This time though there was a sudden outpouring of air, like a blowhole, from atop the cliffs.

Something had been launched out. Pacifica smirked when she recognised what it was. Spinning in the air, Mason bounced softly off one of the mushrooms and rolled onto the beach. She ran over to him. He was soaking wet and sullenly rubbing a hand through his sodden hair.

“Ow, and I thought my body ached when I woke up in the caves, oof. Paz?”

“Mason, thank god. You weren’t eaten then? I was so worried.”

“Eaten? No, the cave just tried to nibble on this.” He showed her Journal 7 clutched in his arms. One of the corners now had a wet bite mark. “Had to try and wrestle it out. Then it was like the fight went out of it, just let the book go and spat me out through the wind tunnel. Uh, what the hell’s going out here? Why are we on a beach that looks like it took some of Mabel’s drugs?”

“Well, I’ve got notes in my journal to show you later, but the gist of it is-

Mabel interrupted and blurted out a speedy explanation. “This island is one big creature and now it’s trying to be a million fungus spores all at once!”

“Oh, that simple is it?” Mason dryly replied. “Ah, what the hell!?”

Calamar had run over on her surprisingly lithe legs and was shouting in Mason’s face, her whiskers flared. “You, you have doomed my spawn! The pair-bond is broken and the Grown are lost!”

“Get off me! I don’t even know _what_ you are, let alone what’s going on!”

The girls dragged Calamar off of Mason, holding her arms back. “And don’t try any of that body morphing business!” Mabel was brandishing her gauntlet menacingly at the alien, who once again couldn’t actually tell whether that was a threat or not by dint of lacking the eyes to see it.

“I warned you Calamar!” Pacifica shouted smugly. She might have been right about the alien’s folly, but right then her feeling of superiority was skewered by another quake hitting the beach.

The girls dropped Calamar in the chaos. Parts of the high rocky cliffs began crumbling off. Mason had to roll to the side to avoid being crushed by a falling boulder. The whole beach, now covered in a forest of mushrooms, began to splinter open, revealing fiery chasms of lava. The whole place was tearing itself apart trying to absorb and manifest a million new lifeforms at once. Even the constellation in the sky had morphed into an outline of a mushroom.

“Time to leave I think,” Mabel said, looking at her hopper. Thankfully the red warning was gone, replaced with the portal logo. They could get out whenever they needed to now.

Mason nodded heartily as he finally got back on his feet. “Agreed, let’s blow this place, before it blows up!” 

Mason’s hand hovered inches from his hopper when Pacifica called out. “Wait, what about Calamar? She caused all this, but we can’t leave her here!”

Calamar was reaching out for one of the enormous mushrooms, right as it broke off and fell into one of the yawning fiery pits opening up everywhere. Her whiskers were working overtime to take in all the stimulation going on. As a fungus creature, she was most likely used to a much slower pace of living than this inferno hurtling towards her.

Mason and Mabel looked at Pacifica incredulously. They were about ready to leave this place behind completely. Ignoring them, she ran to the alien’s side and tried to help her up. Calamar gave a feeble attempt to push her away, wanting to wallow here on the rapidly disintegrating beachfront. “It’s all gone. Like the nesting grounds! All burnt to nothing.”

“Wait, burnt?” Pacifica was now overtaken by a stronger desire than mere altruism. She had to know what this alien was talking about. “Hold on, you have to explain! Please, I need to know more about the burning!”

“All gone. They said it was for the greater good. I must join Bortran.” She slumped over, any survival instinct draining out of her. Pacifica tried to lift her up, to save her. It was like saving this one alien would give her all the answers she’d sought for so long. It was selfish to admit that was her reason for putting in so much effort for a not-so-friendly stranger.

The ground between them split in two. Pacifica leapt back to safety. As the sand trickled away in the flaming pit, she could only watch helplessly. Calamar did nothing to prevent herself falling into the fire. Pacifica heard one last message, carried through the air. “We suffer… no longer…”

And then the world exploded. But the Pines had already left.

* * *

Standing in a market, millions of miles away, Pacifica ignored the chatter of alien species around her. Staring up at three moons in the night sky, her mind was still racing from what had happened at their last destination. She couldn’t get the image of Calamar, sliding willingly to her death, out her mind. It kept recurring.

“You tried to do the right thing Paz.” Mason offered her a drink of some alien beverage which she waved off. “It’s not your fault, any of it. If we hadn’t showed up, the same thing would have happened. The Grown would have tried to spread, and that world would have died. No point worrying about what we can’t change, huh?”

Pacifica didn’t reply. He was trying to help, she knew that. But this was more than her failure to help save Calamar. The burning had been one of the most constant images she’d seen in her visions to come. Once again she’d failed to learn more, truth snatched away from her at the last second.

She was nearer to finding out the cause of all this. At the same time she was so far from anything she knew. It felt like the closer they came to unravelling a mystery, the more obstacles stood in their way.

Even on top of her usual dreams, she doubted she’d get much sleep tonight.


	31. The Gamblers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of this chapter (06/04/2020 specifically), I've completed the first draft of all 40 chapters, all the way up to the finale. All that remains is editing to get them up to publication level, but the bulk of writing is now complete.

Watching from above, she could see every inch of the station. Every little retreat, every hidey-hole, every nook and cranny. Nothing was out of her sight. The crowds down below were scarcely aware they were being observed, going about their random lives, thinking it was by chance they ended up where they did. But chance was on her side.

Finally she caught a glimpse. New arrivals, shunted into one of the docking bays. They were the ones she’d been warned about. Three of them, ready to stir chaos. Ready to help her find the mole. She would have to watch them _very_ closely.

“Great, we’ve landed in _another_ spaceship.” Mabel exasperatedly looked up and down the metal corridor. “Yep, it’s an arrival bay. Stupid places always yank us off course.” She slammed her fist down on her hopper a few times in frustration before giving up.

“What’s so bad about spaceships?” Mason asked. “I think they’re pretty cool, we never got to ride one of these babies back on Earth.”

“I think she’s more worried about what happens when the pilots find out about us,” Pacifica said, believing it was obvious. “In the last week we’ve been chased around five different freighters by irate captains. At least that pleasure cruise we landed in the middle of gave us free gift baskets.”

“Yeah, look on the bright side Mabel, if the owners of this ship are friendly we might be able to rest here tonight.” He looked around for some kind of exit from the tight metal box they’d arrived in. There were just four blank walls surrounding them. He tapped experimentally on one of them.

The lights cut out. “Woah!” Panicking in the dark, Mabel collided with Pacifica. “Hey, watch where you’re going!”

“I can’t see a thing!” Which, she thought, was largely true anyway with how bad her eyesight was without her glasses. “Maybe it’s a trap!”

“Wait.” Mason shushed them and held his ear against the wall. There was a mechanical whirring in the distance. He nearly fell over when the wall rose upwards out of the way. Lights came on in rows leading out of the room, before stopping by a large sign.

Then the whole room exploded into light. The trio had to cover their eyes while they adjusted. Squinting at the sign, Pacifica read what was written on it in a chintzy font. “Welcome to Lottocron, exclamation mark, exclamation mark. What the heck?”

“Lottocron? Wait, I know what this is!” Before Mason could say more, the sign split in two and a curtain dramatically rose behind it. There was a long corridor, each side bounded by a glass wall. One was open to a dazzling array of stars against a deep purple sky. 

The other showed a vast hall, bustling with crowds of a multitude of alien species. Waiters mingled about offering food to the denizens, who mainly clustered around long tables. There were bright colourful lights, and they could hear jazzy music in the distance.

Mabel pressed her face against the glass. “It’s so pretty. It’s like Vegas on steroids! A space casino!”

“Exactly!” Mason pontificated loudly. “This is so cool, I’ve known about this place for so long, but to actually be here! Wow.”

“Don’t say it.” Pacifica rolled her eyes. “Your uncle Ford told you about it.” Her husband was nothing if not predictable and judging by his eager nod she’d been right on the money. Smiling, she indulged him. “Go on then. Do the thing.”

“Ok, lemme just get my journal out.” A look of concentration took over his face.

Mabel leant over to Pacifica and whispered in her ear. “5 bucks says he can’t do it.”

“Ta- Tahge- Tahgemah-“ He was straining from the effort, even starting to sweat slightly.

Pacifica rolled her eyes. “Not the spell again. Really Mace?”

“Just gimme a sec, I can do this. Tahgemah b'soo rekoah! Dammit, nothing.” Accepting defeat, he reached into his pack and retrieved Journal 7 by hand. “I’m getting close though, you’ve gotta admit!”

“Yeah, about as close as we are to Earth right now,” Pacifica teased. “So, tell all us about this glitzy paradise we’ve landed in.”

“This is Lottocron 9! Well, 10 actually, looks like they’ve had and upgrade.” He gestured at logo branded on the wall reading ‘Lottocron X’. “This is the biggest casino in the multiverse. It’s not just a space station, it’s a whole artificial planetary environment centred around gambling. Everything is decided by chance, like a horoscope. Outside this casino there are homes, schools, it’s a thriving metropolis. We must be in the off season, this station is supposed to land on a new planet every year, it works on rotation using-”

“Enough nerd talk!” Mabel cut him off. “What are we waiting for, let’s go!” She charged off down the hallway.

“Let’s go casual for once.” Mason twisted the rim of his hopper, causing a flurry of activity all over his survival suit. Before the girls’ eyes his suit unmade itself. As with the repair function Mabel had witnessed in operation, the silver scaffolding was visible as the suit gradually disappeared. All the nanoparticles flowed into the hopper’s disc on his hand, leaving him in the clothes he’d been wearing underneath, a red flannel shirt and jeans.

The girls got the idea and packed away their suits as well. Pacifica was still wearing her matching purple flannel, while Mabel had her practical brown jacket on. They looked less ready for a space adventure and more like they were back home.

Pacifica spun around, looking at her choice of outfit “I feel so under-dressed. The aliens here are so much classier.”

“What, you had the foresight to pack a birthday cake, but bringing a formal dress slipped your mind?” Mabel asked with a slight edge of criticism. “Enough dawdling, let’s go have fun!” Racing away, the couple chuckled and followed her out into the main casino hall. They found her gaping, mouth open, and joined in when they saw what had her so amazed.

Now they were in the main room, the tiny sliver they’d seen through the hallway window had opened up to a vast airy hall, stretching what seemed for miles ahead of them. Casino tables offering every game of chance imaginable were dotted around, and the crowds of aliens numbered in the thousands. Above the base level were smaller overlapping terraces, like it was a giant shopping mall. Ads for luxury hotels and eateries were visible on floating billboards sponsored by the Cynn city government.

“This place must be 20- 30 storeys high! If not more!” Mason said as he craned his neck. Right at the, covered top of the grand mezzanine was clear roof, showing the same purple sky the whole of Lottocron was drifting slowly through.

“The clientele here are a cut above too,” Pacifica said, trying to hide her admiration as she scanned the crowds. Aliens though they may be, she could detect good taste. “My parents could learn a thing or two.”

Mabel’s eyes were roving here and there, her head turning to catch each new delight. “Wait, is that…” She did a double take and searched again. Mason and Pacifica looked at each other curiously. Mabel seemed oddly fixated on something, before shaking her head. “Nevermind. This place has everything: The glamour, the lights, the excitement and risk! Can we stay here a little while Dipper? Please!?” 

Mabel’s needy puppy dog eyes quickly swayed her brother. Despite the imperativeness of their mission, they had been moving non-stop for days now. Besides, he couldn’t say no to that face. How Mabel had really won him over in the last few months. This time last year he wouldn’t have cared one bit about Mabel’s wellbeing.

“Alright, fine,” he sighed. Mabel punched the air. He wasn’t about to completely go wild, however. “Now, remember everyone,” Mason said in a lecturing tone. “We don’t want to get too distracted here. We’ll take it nice and easy, and just stay until the hoppers recharge. We should arrange a meeting point, make sure no-one gets lost.”

“Aaaaaaaaand she’s already gone,” Pacifica said.

Mason spun around. She was right. Mabel had vanished. “Great, so much for that plan.”

“She’ll turn up later.” Pacifica took Mason’s hand. “Come on. When in Rome!”

* * *

Not wanting to treat this experience like a school-trip, safe and dull, Mabel headed deeper into the mezzanine to forge her own path. She wanted a taste of what this place had to offer, maybe play a few games, sample a bit of alien culture.

Privately, she had another motivation behind leaving the group. She’d thought she’d seen a familiar face in the crowd. Though it scarcely seemed possible, she actually imagined she’s glimpsed Zera, the alien conwoman they’d met in Japan back in January. She’d been disappointed when the fish-like alien she’d spotted across the casino turned out to be an older male, likely another of her species, the S’aren.

Something about Zera, that captivating trickster from the stars, had never left Mabel. She’d lied and betrayed her, yet Mabel felt no malice in return. In many ways Zera reminded her of herself, defiant, fighting for herself above all others, willing to transgress against the social order to get her way. Plus, Mabel found her surprisingly beautiful. If this place was supposedly driven by chance and luck, she’d give anything for the stars to align in her favour to find her again.

Maybe, just maybe, she could do something to tip the odds in her favour. Reaching into her pack, she grabbed the birthday present Pacifica had given to her on their first day of travelling the multiverse. The special scroll, that would enhance any spell she used. If she used an aura detection spell, and Zera happened to be here… it was too good to be true.

She bit her lip. It seemed a waste to use it just to find one person. Surely this scroll could be more useful if she saved it for a real battle or moment of desperation. Despite her rational mind telling her to stop and think, her hands had already broken the scroll’s seal and started unrolling it.

The parchment was old and rough, but she could read the writing well enough. It was scribbled all over in chaotic lines of text, like one of her brother’s journal entries (if Pacifica could manage to keep all her words in neat lines, why couldn’t he?). She didn’t know how to activate the scroll, so simply started reciting her aura spell quietly to see what would happen.

Eyes widening, she saw the words on the scroll begin to glow, each line turning a different colour. The edges of the parchment caught fire with a purple flame. Then her body felt racked with energy, flowing into her from the scroll. It was like pure pleasure washing over her. With a mighty push, a ball of energy shot out from her chest and zoomed away, pushing several aliens in the crowd to the side.

As the scroll turned to ash in her hands, she quickly forgot about it and dashed after the spell. Saying an internal thanks to Pacifica for giving her the present, she ran towards her destiny. Chance was on her side.

Like a whole internal city packed inside, the casino was a hassle to traverse. She parkoured up several terraces so she didn’t lose sight of the spell. Eventually the glowing orb came to a stop, perched by the edge. There was an immense drop ahead of her, all the way down to the ground floor. “What, is that it?” she questioned to the orb.

It sputtered out and was gone. Mabel looked around frantically. Then her eyes settled upon her at last. Sitting at one of the game tables, credit chips piled up beside her, Zera was staring intently down at a set of cards in her hands. Though she no longer wore the dazzle device, Mabel still found her alien form mesmerising, from her shimmering rainbow skin to her pink fins. She looked less naïve and vulnerable than before; her very stance and posture radiated more swagger than the fake ‘last of her kind’ act she’d put on in Japan.

Mabel hesitated. Though she was incredibly happy for the opportunity to see Zera again, she was still endlessly indecisive about how her hazy relationship with Eli had been developing back before the portal incident. Did she really want to add another crush on top of all that? Not to mention the slight weirdness about being infatuated with an alien.

“May? May, is that you?”

“Crap,” she thought. Zera was waving at her. “Ah, screw it.” Eli was far away after all. Pushing doubts aside, she sidled over to Zera’s table and smiled at her old acquaintance. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!”

Zera stood up from her game and awkwardly paused in front of Mabel, unsure of how to react. Mabel knew exactly what to do and threw her arms around the alien. Her skin was smooth and moist, but Mabel didn’t mind the texture.

“It’s amazing to see you Mabel, all the way out here! What are you-“

“Doing here?” she excitedly interrupted? “That’s a super-duper long story, filled with action, daring, and epic quests! Remember that sun crystal you tried to steal?” Zera nodded, blushing slightly. “Well we used it to build an interdimensional gateway so we could travel through the multiverse!”

Zera’s blush reddened. “You did that all that just to find me?”

Now Mabel blushed too. “Uh, not exactly- but I am glad to see you, really glad.” Zera gave a small smile that sent her insides tumbling. “It’s complicated. My brother and Pacifica are here too.”

“Oh yes, I remember them. Still haven’t managed to get rid of them then?”

“Ha, rude!” Mabel lightly punched Zera’s arm. “What about you, still on the run from the law?”

Zera sat back down and picked up her cards, giving a sympathetic grin in way of apology to her fellow players. She picked out and laid a card, ending her turn. “I’ve come for a bit of a getaway. The heat’s died down, so I decided to come to Lottocron. There are a lot of opportunities here.”

Zera looked left and right before leaning in and whispering quietly to Mabel. “Between you and me, I’ve got a lot of money riding on this game. That Gromflomite I’m playing against, see him?” Mabel followed Zera’s subtle side-gaze to an alien that looked like a giant fly, examining his cards.

“What about him?” she whispered back.

“I’ve got a tiny camera setup I snuck into his last drink. Wires into his optic globe clusters so I can see his cards. Pretty neat, huh.”

Mabel’s mouth dropped open. “You’re cheating?!”

“Shh!” Zera clamped her hand over Mabel’s mouth. Somehow the feeling gave her an odd tingling in her chest. Blushing twice as hard, it underlined just how head over heels she was for Zera. “Keep it quiet May, I don’t wanna get caught. It’s just a little nudge to put the odds in my favour.”

Mabel couldn’t say she was surprised. Zera had been pretty underhanded the last time they’d met. Yet something inside her felt mildly upset that she was taking such a risk. The Gromflomite played his hand, then the rest of the players revealed their cards for the round.

Zera triumphantly slammed down her cards. Mabel didn’t know what it meant – the game was as alien to her as the players – but based on the grumblings of Zera’s opponents it was clear who the winner was. Zera gathered up her winnings. “Thank you, it’s been a pleasure playing, really.”

Then she quickly hustled Mabel away, grinning madly and showing the credit chips she’d won. “Look, I told you it’d be worth it.”

Mabel pulled her into an out of the way alcove so she could talk louder without the crowds drowning them out. “You can’t just cheat like that! What if someone finds out?”

“Oh, lighten up, it’s all a bit of fun. Nobody got hurt. Well, apart from the people whose money I stole.” Mabel looked at her disapprovingly. “Never thought you were the uptight sort.”

“I’m not uptight!” Mabel protested. “I hate following rules, you know me. But this stuff could have repercussions, ya know?” Zera raised an eyebrow, unsure what she was getting at. “It’s not that I’m mad about what you did, I’ve broken tons of laws back on Earth. But what if you got caught, it’s so risky!”

“Oh! I know what this is!” Zera poked a finger in Mabel’s chest and excitedly continued. “This is what you told me about, with your brother, but in reverse!”

“What are you talking about?” Mabel put her hand on Zera’s cheek. “Look, I just wanna make sure you’re not in too much trouble, ok.”

“That’s exactly it! When we met before, you told me you and your brother were estranged, right? You’d split up, he wanted to stay away from you.”

“Yeah, I guess. What does this have to do with anything in the present?”

Zera looked uninterested in the question, then said something that caught Mabel off-guard. “What would you say if I walked up to the Lottoqueen herself and punched her in the jaw? Just showed the boss of this place that I was in charge now?”

“What, that’s totally reckless, are you nuts?! You could get hurt and think of how it would affect me if- oh my god, you’re right.”

“You are your brother’s sister. To him you were acting reckless. So he moved away. You thought it meant he didn’t care, but maybe…”

“Maybe it meant he cared a whole lot,” Mabel said, contemplating the words. Then she blushed. “I mean, we hardly know each other, but I do care. About you. Quite a lot. Oh man.”

Zera took Mabel’s hands and instantly she felt calmer. “I get it May, I do. It’s cute that you feel so worried on my behalf. I can take care of myself though.” Zera’s confident grin once again sent Mabel’s heart skyrocketing.

“Zera, there’s something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time now.” The alien cocked her head to the side. Mabel put her other hand on Zera’s hip, then leant in. Ignoring any lingering hesitation, she kissed her hard on the mouth. Zera’s hand brushed through her hair and the two of them made out in the alcove.

Mabel broke the kiss and started giggling in a high-pitched tone. “I haven’t felt like this about a kiss since high-school.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet. Romance on S’aren seems a lot different to yours. It’s a lot more clinical.”

“I remember you telling me. Let me show you what real love is.” They kissed again, tender and passionate. Mabel wondered if this was what Mason and Pacifica’s relationship was like. All through her life she’d bounced from relationship to relationship, never really settling or finding ‘the one’. Something about Zera awakened such deep feelings within her she almost felt she could lift off the ground and fly.

“I’m so glad I found you again. I never in a million years expected to have this chance.”

Zera shook her head. “It wasn’t chance that brought us back together. It was you, striving for so much more than one little planet. You crossed galaxies, traversed the very barriers of reality, all to get back to me.”

“That’s not quite true.” Mabel frowned. Much as she wanted to stay here in this moment, she knew she had a bigger responsibility. “I don’t know how long I can be with you. In a little while me and the others are gonna have to move on. You see, there’s this signal…”

Zera put a finger to her lips. “Hush. You can do that later. For now, let’s live in the present.”

Mabel eagerly accepted that conclusion. This was an amazing present worth living in. They continued their tight embrace, holding each other together after such a hard absence. 

“Hey, you!” The bug like Gromflofite from before was angrily stomping over.

“Run!” Zera took Mabel’s hand. Laughing, she let herself be pulled away into the crowd, leaving the upset card player in the dust. Her worries from before were melting away. 

And all the while they were still being watched.

* * *

Far across Cynn city, Mason and Pacifica were glad to have a moment together. Despite loving Mabel unconditionally by this point, being with her 24/7 left them very little time to breathe. They were both very aware how draining it could be around someone so constantly upbeat and energetic.

Hand in hand, they walked together along one of the terraces, about 10 floors up. This area was laid out nicely with a fountains and palm trees. There was an obvious artificiality, as with everything here, but it was still a pleasant place for a laid-back date. Neither of them had been for a day out in space before, after all.

Mason had picked up a guidebook to Lottocron X and was trying to find something for them to do as a couple. “The restaurants here look pretty good. We could slow down, have a proper sit-down meal. Though our food would probably be determined by chance like everything here, heh.”

“Maybe not then, your poor veggie stomach couldn’t handle it if we got a plate full of alien meat or something.”

“How about we play a game or something then, live a little? This Tengosan Scrabble sounds quite interesting.” 

Pacifica looked at him doubtfully. “What, you, gamble?” She had to hide a snicker.

Mason tried to appear assure of himself. “I mean, Stan took me to a casino when I turned 18 as a ‘learning experience’, that was kinda fun. Though, he spent most of the time getting black-out drunk and trying to jimmy one of the slot machines open. Do you think- Pacifica?”

Midway through his reminiscence she’d turned away and was now staring intently at her Pine Tree pendant. “It’s hovering, look.” True to her word, the silver necklace was spinning around and trying to tug Pacifica in a random direction. “It’s never done this around any aliens before. It’s too acclimatised to their collective oddness. This is something different, might even be a portal thing.”

She was speeding up and rambling to herself. Mason put an arm on her shoulder, hoping to calm her down. “I’m sure it’s nothing Paz, we’re in space remember. Lots of weird stuff here.”

She shrugged him off. “I have to know what this is, it might even be related to my dreams!” Following the pendant’s pull, she headed off towards whatever it was detecting.

“So much for a quiet day off,” Mason sighed. Then he hurried to catch up with his wife.

Pacifica knew the pendant’s activity meant something. She was sure of it. It had always guided her on the right path, ever since Mason had first given it to her so long ago. She didn’t know exactly how it worked, what enchantments he had applied to it, but she trusted it implicitly.

Despite the bizarre array of aliens she passed, none of them were the right target. None of them were ‘weird’ enough according to the pendant. She stopped at a roulette table, or at least some alien variant of the game. She panned across the crowd, feeling she was near to her goal.

There she finally spotted the anomaly. The weirdest thing in here. 

A human being.

One she recognised.

The white paint on his face had faded, but it was still recognisably a skull, vibrant against his dark skin. His third eye was open and proud. It made him seem younger without the forehead ‘wrinkles’ he’d used to cover it up normally. He wasn’t wearing a survival suit, just the priestly robes he used to present a certain image of himself to others.

He was intent on the roulette wheel in front of him, so hadn’t seen Pacifica. She approached him and calmly spoke. “Bokamoso Potgieter. What are the chances?”

His face lit up as he turned to see her. “Ah, but there’s the rub,” he said with his usual toothy grin. “_Everything_ here is run by chance. My dear Mrs Pines, so good to see a familiar face so far from home.”

They shook hands, but then Bokamoso quickly hushed her before she could say another word. His attention was focused on the spinning ball in the roulette wheel. It landed on some alien symbol and a number was called out. Bokamoso cursed his luck. “Ag, I had money on this one.”

He sadly slid a few credit chips over the table to a happy creature made of liquid with three heads. As he did so, Pacifica noticed his arm was covered in deep scars. “You’re hurt.”

He sadly looked down at the injuries. “Alas, traversing this strange reality we call the multiverse is not without risks. Got these from an aggressive tribe of rodent creatures.”

“It’s good to see you’re even alive though! After everything that went down, we weren’t sure any of you guys had made it.”

“Aye, it’s been a busy few days, I just wish I hadn’t arrived alone-“

“Days?” Pacifica frowned. “The twins and I have been travelling for _3 weeks_ already. Nevermind, Mason can figure that out.”

“Ah, the three of you managed to stay together.” Bokamoso smiled warmly. “I think that is the way it should be, your old Mystery Trio back in action across the stars!”

“Sure, whatever you say.” Pacifica had to say that Bo’s usually boisterousness was more than she could usually tolerate. He was more Mabel’s kind of person. “Where’s your survival suit then? You decided to go casual too?”

“Not exactly.” He pointed across the roulette table. “I may have been rather less than prudent in keeping it secure. See that four-armed creep over there? He thinks it’s a credit chip.”

Pacifica saw the brute of an alien, with a mound of chips in front of him. Among them was the recognisable disc of his hopper. She ran a hand down her face “Oh Bo, how’d you lose that!? The number one most important thing and you gambled it away? You’re just lucky it didn’t end up as some rich guy’s status symbol or sold off at somewhere like the Plutonica Auction, you’d have never got it back! What were you thinking?”

He raised both hands, before sliding a credit chip over for the next game that was starting up. "I can explain. I admit I was a bit rash with my gambling. That’s the allure of the game, the risk. It’s no fun if you have no real skin in the game. Your parents never took you to gamble away some of that fabulous wealth?"

Pacifica crossed her arms. She didn’t like talking about that part of her past much. "They were already stupid rich. To them it was just throwing money away. Anyway, how'd you know my parents had a lot of money? I don't remember telling you about my younger days before."

"Magic!"

"If you're gonna be like that you can win back the hopper yourself."

She started moving away but he hastily stood up to block her. "Ah ah ah, my apologies. Mabel told me about it over the summer. Even showed me your old manor on the hill. We went there looking for old parts that Candy’s old man might have left lying around."

“That’s better.” She sat back down in his chair, watching the spinning roulette wheel. “Why were you gambling in the first place though? We’re on a mission Bo, this is important.” She tapped her temple. “My dreams, remember? We have to get this thing done.”

“Not all those who wander are lost. That’s Tolkien by the way, I’m not just being cryptic.” He opened his arms wide, gesturing at the entire enormous mezzanine reaching above and below them. “I’ve finally found my place!”

“Your place?”

“Somewhere I’m not an outcast. Nobody looks at me strange here because of my eye. The plurality of life here is too great for me to stand out. And I thought Gravity Falls was a haven for freaks! Nobody cares that I’m ‘different’ here!”

Pacifica could sympathise with that. Bo wasn’t much out of his teens, persecuted all his life. To finally find a place like this would have been a dream for any lonely kid. “I suppose that’s fair enough. But now we’re here, we need to win you back that hopper.” She noticed his cheerful smile waver a little. “Sorry, but we have a job to do.”

“Fair is fair, I have been neglecting my duties. I did sign up for all the grand heroics after all. Yet four days is far too short a time to revel in such accepting company.”

"You've been here how long?!" Mason breathlessly said. He’d been running around for the last few minutes and finally found Pacifica.

"Ah Mason,” Bo said dryly. “How did I know that would be your response?"

“We’ve already been over that, Mace,” Pacifica said. “You can be annoyed with him wasting time later, for now we should help him win the hopper back. It’s incredible we were even able to find one of our team.” She enjoyed seeing him shut his mouth and accept what she said without argument.

He did have one thing to say. “What about getting your hopper back some other way. Like, pickpocketing it, or even going one-on-one.”

“Have you seen the alien who has it?” Bo jabbed a thumb over at the multi-limbed hunk of muscle and Mason grimaced. “Even with magic, I’m just a scrawny kid from the slums. I don’t fancy my odds. As for thievery, well… Have you seen any bouncers here, any guards? Either of you?" he said, turning deadly serious.

Pacifica felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Well, I mean, we've only been here a short while-"

"There aren't any. Anywhere. It's one of those 'decided by chance' things if you get caught or not. The people here - the permanent residents at least, not the day-trippers like you or I - they leave everything to chance, to the whims of probability. Their whole path through life – what career they pursue, who they marry, what they do for fun. All of it decided by the roll of a dice. But what if it's not random? What if someone else was pulling the strings. Changing the outcomes. Controlling their futures."

“You sound paranoid,” Pacifica said, but privately felt a chill at his words. In an instant he’d gone from the avuncular jokester to someone who was scaring her with just his tone of voice.

“There’s more. We’re being watched.”

“Watched?” Pacifica covertly looked around, as if she could see who he was talking about. Mason too narrowed his eyes at the implication.

Lowering his voice, Bo continued. “It’s subtle. I didn’t even notice them at first. The cameras hover about too fast to be easily spotted. We’re being observed, all the time we’ve been here. The only thing keeping me alert is the idea that this was all some giant feint, a honey trap to ensnare us…” Pacifica felt the blood run from her face.

“Boo!” Pacifica jumped out of her skin, and the shaman laughed boisterously again. “But who the heck would be out here to trap us anyway! We left all our enemies back a billion lightyears away.”

“It’s still not funny to joke about,” Mason said.

“Ah, lighten up Pines. That’s what I’m all about after all, unsettling people.” He flourished a card from one of the many games being run on the terrace, holding it up so Pacifica and Mason could see it clearly. “It’s all about the art of… misdirection!” He flicked his hand and the card vanished. “Poof. Like magic, hahaha!”

Mason shook his head. “Come on, we should find Mabel and work out a strategy. Then the four of us can get out of here.”

As they abandoned the roulette wheel and merged back into the crown, Pacifica thought she noticed something in the edge of her vision. Just a flash and it was gone.

* * *

“Woah, hey Bo!” When they found Mabel using their suit’s trackers, she was trying to suppress a grin. And largely failing. After hugging Bokamoso in a tight death grip, they told her all about the missing hopper. 

Bokamoso was more interested in catching up than his present worries though. “My girl! Have you been following your practice regime with the spells?”

Mabel nodded quickly but seemed distracted. Despite it being cool to see another teammate had made it safely through the portal, she clearly had her mind on something else. Finally she couldn’t hold it in any longer. “You’ll never believe who I found! Ta da!”

She stood aside and revealed Zera, who’d been hiding behind an ornate fountain. She was uncomfortably shuffling her feet, unsure of how Mason and Pacifica would react to seeing her. They might not be as gracious as Mabel was at forgiving her past transgressions.

“Oh, hey Zera,” Mason said casually. “Now anyway, back to the Hopper-“

“What? You’re not mad at me?”

“Pfft, forget about it girl,” Pacifica said. “That was a long time ago. We don’t care if you wanted to steal that crystal. In fact, you can help us to steal something else.” Mabel could only laugh at Zera’s gobsmacked expression. “Besides, it just seems like that kind of day. We already ran into one old friend, why not two.”

Mabel took Zera’s hand to help her relax. She’d been dreading this reencounter and it hadn’t turned out at all how she’d expected. “I… I don’t know what to say. Thank you for not judging me too harshly, I suppose.”

“We’ve been betrayed by worse.” Mason shrugged. “Lately I’ve started just accepting that everyone we meet might have a double agenda. You know, one time I was betrayed by a yellow triangle, that’s a story I could tell-“

“Well yes, but then we’d be here all day.” Bokamoso was tapping his foot impatiently. “About my hopper then?”

“Right.” Mason had Journal 7 in hand. “I was thinking that with you and Mabel working together, you can do one of the more powerful summoning spells in here to cause a distraction. Then one of us can swoop in and grab the hopper.”

“Why not use the superior spellbook then?” Bo suggested. He puffed out his chest, and in a strong, deep voice, called out a spell. “Tahgemah b'zoo ah rekor!”

Pacifica chuckled and nudged her husband in the ribs when Bokamoso’s journal appeared in puff of smoke in his hands. “Why did it never work when I tried it?” Mason mumbled to himself. He leant over and saw that the book Bo had taken was Journal number 11. In all the chaos of their quick departure at least he’d managed to hand enough books out for him to end up with a copy.

“Now, let me see… I think I wrote it down on the page about potential inter-dimensional threats.” He rifled through Mason’s copied text, before settling on a page taken up by a sketch of a gangly imp with 8-balls instead of eyes.

Mason took the journal from him and saw that every blank space not taken up with his own notes was covered in Bokamoso’s scribbled handwriting, mostly spells and incantations he’d memorised. “Why didn’t you just write in the blank pages?” Mason flipped the journal ahead. The preliminary notes he’d copied over for the mission and his page of ‘Calculations’ only took up about a quarter of each book.

“Because you’ll need them someday. In the future.” Bo winked with his third eye, leaving that enigmatic comment as his final word.

Ignoring the cryptic remark, Mason tried to look for a spell that would have the optimum effect. Mabel leant over and started scanning the page as well. “Ooh, maybe that spell… wait, we don’t have any Pyrosaur blood.”

Leaving Mason and the wizards in their deep study, Pacifica started up a conversation with Zera. “So, is it weird between you and Mabel?”

“What- what do you mean?” The alien girl was tight-lipped. “She was a good friend to me, it’s nice to see her again.”

Pacifica got in closer so they wouldn’t be overheard. “Yeah, but… we all saw that kiss you gave her. You don’t have to keep it a secret. May’s had stranger girlfriends before. She can be a lot to handle, take that from 16 years of experience.”

“I- oh.” Her face turned a shade of purple that Pacifica guessed was a blush of embarrassment. For someone who made their living as a thief she seemed very easy to confound. She supposed that crushes did that to you.

She flashed Zera a sympathetic smile, as if to say, ‘good luck with Mabel’. As she turned her head back to the three of them huddled around the journal, she glimpsed something moving briefly. Pacifica tried to catch it in the edge of her vision, forcing herself not to look directly. There it was again, the thing she’d seen buzzing about. It was a tiny silver drone, darting here and there. Bo had been right. They were being watched.

Suddenly Mabel’s hand shot out and clutched the drone before it could fly away. Everyone was shocked by the speed of the motion. “You’re not the only one with a keen eye Paz. I’ve got fast reflexes too. Damn drone’s been following me around all morning. So what is this thing?”

The drone, no larger than the journal, was resisting her grip, trying to force itself free. Bo cast a wordless spell at the tiny device and ethereal chains clamped it to the floor. Even still it continued to wriggle. “This is what’s been keeping an eye on me. I knew I was being watched. I thought it was some kind of camera.”

“It looks more like a tiny plane,” Mason said. He tapped it with a pen. “This glass section, at the front. It’s not a lens. I think it’s a canopy.”

“What, you’re not being serious!?” Mabel said incredulously. “This is a mini-spaceship? There’s someone inside piloting it about?”

Beside her Zera shrugged. “That’s not so outlandish. In my line of work you meet a lot of different people. Some of them are normal sized, others…” She prised the glass canopy off the drone.

Staring up at the travellers was a small insect-like woman. She looked like an oversized cockroach, with multiple slender limbs protruding out of a hard, brown shell. Zera gasped, but the others were all unsure of what was going on. “It’s you! The Lottoqueen!”

“The who-now?” Mabel asked. “You’re telling us that little bug is the one in charge of this whole giant space station?”

“I am lord and master!” The alien’s voice was scratchy. “Get away from me! I bend the weave of fate, I guide the invisible hand!” She pointed six spindly limbs right at Bokamoso. Right at his journal. “I will not be defeated by you, Pines!”

Hearing that name rocked them. This alien, out here in the depths of space, knew who they were. For the trio and Bo, this seemed impossible. They were so far from home that any knowledge of their quest should be completely unknown.

Zera, ignorant of any larger significance, grabbed the little creature, squeezing her in a single hand. “The posters made you seem taller. You don’t look so tough.”

The alien launched itself out Zera’s grasp. Her naturally moist scaly skin was too slippery to keep her contained, and the bug creature leapt with surprising height. “Somebody grab her!” Mason called out.

Bokamoso fired off a spell, and red sparks narrowly missed the alien. Mabel too tried firing her grappling hook, but she was too nimble. She landed in the middle of a card game, spooking the players. In hot pursuit Mason scrambled over the table, apologising to the disrupted patrons and making a dive for the alien.

While everyone dashed after the tiny fleeing creature, Pacifica stopped to take the time to try and plot out where she was running to. Her eyes traced her route and settled on one of the marble statues adorning a fountain. It was a statue of the small alien but rendered in a much larger form. “Uh oh. That’s no statue.”

Outrunning the pursuers, the Lottoqueen flipped up to the top of the statue. The face slid open revealing a tiny cockpit. Sliding shut again, the giant statue started to move. The twins, Zera, and Bo stopped their chase and started backing away, just as one of the many slender limbs crashed down.

From a concealed speaker came what they assumed was the tiny alien’s voice. “It’s all fun and games until someone gets crushed!”

The nearby patrons registered the threat and started fleeing in panic, knocking each other over and scrambling away off the terrace. Many nearly plummeted off the whole thing, risking a fall they wouldn’t be coming back from. The towering drop gave Pacifica an idea. “Mabel,” she cried out, “tripline, by the edge!”

Quickly getting back in action after being stunned by the statue, Mabel rolled past a swinging arm and fired a line from her grappling hook. Then she aimed for the statue, firing out laser blasts to keep it distracted. The stone outer casing easily shrugged off the energy bolts, but it did the trick. Mabel had the alien mech’s complete attention. “Come to mama.”

Pacifica rounded up the others and they charged the statue’s legs, forcing it closer to the side of the terrace. Bo added support, chanting an incantation that held some of the attacking arms in place. With Zera, Mason, and Pacifica all shoving, the statue reached where Mabel’s line was strung across.

Slowly, the great bulk of the statue toppled over backwards, before plummeting over 10 storeys down the base floor. Mabel scrunched up her face in mock sympathy. “Ooh, that’s gotta hurt.”

“We best not rest on our laurels yet,” Bokamoso said, rushing towards the edge. He shouted a loud spell, then launched himself into space. “Gravitas Cessare!”

Mabel watched enviously as he drifted languorously down to where the statue had fallen. “Wish I could do that spell yet,” she muttered. “Show off.”

“Come on,” Mason said, “like he said, this might not be over.”

“I can’t believe you’re so chill about this!” Zera said. “We just defeated a giant killer robot and you’re treating it like it’s nothing!”

The trio all looked at one another and Mabel answered. “That’s the life, Z. We do this sort of thing for breakfast. Now let’s go!” She took Zera’s hand and they headed down to check on Bokamoso.

When they’d descended back down to the entrance level, a crowd had gathered around the wrecked machine. Bo had the alien roach wrapped up in ghostly tendrils. “She’s not slipping away this time.”

Pacifica stuck her finger angrily in the alien’s face. “Talk! Why were you spying on us in that little ship? Why did you attack us? How do you know our names?!”

The alien reached out and snapped at Pacifica’s finger with her sharp teeth. “Get away from me, enemy!” Pacifica recoiled, frightened by the aggression bundled up in the small creature.

“Let me try,” Mabel said. She picked the Lottoqueen up and shook her wildly. She squealed at the punishment before Mabel relented. “Care to talk now?”

“I’ve been watching. Overseeing all who pass through my domain.” The alien spoke quickly, her eyes constantly moving back and forth like she was permanently rattled. “Four days ago we detected an incursion into the station via the exact kind of portal technology we’re after. Unfortunately we lost track of the intruder. We didn’t know their face. But since there had been no follow-up departure, we knew they were still here. It was a matter of time, waiting for others from your petty little band to turn up on our doorstep.”

“You know about portal technology?” Mason was very interested all of a sudden. “If you know our names and our mission then there’s only one group you can belong to. You must be an ally of the a-mortals!”

“The who?” Zera asked, and Mabel whispered that she’d explain later.

“So surprised, are you?" the Lottoqueen replied. "You think only Terrans can be a-mortal? I’ve been running Lottocron for millennia! My kind only live naturally for six months in the wild. Mayflies, I believe that’s the term you Earth beings would use.”

“I thought they elected the leader of this place every five years based on a random lottery from the populace,” Zera said. “That’s the line your government’s fed to us at least.”

“I shifted the odds to be in my favour. Something you’re guilty of too. That’s right, I saw you fixing those games, S’aren. I see everything that goes on in the city.”

“Mason, you realise what this means?” Pacifica said. “She’s been in contact with the a-mortals back on Earth. They might even have a portal of their own already. This goes way beyond what we assumed before. It’s not just our planet that’s involved anymore.”

The Lottoqueen grinned at her devilishly, delighting in her realisation of how little she really knew. Mason gestured for everyone to move away from the tiny alien. “We should keep our distance. If she’s a-mortal, she might not be as harmless as she seems.”

“What are you talking about Terran?” the alien responded. “I’m old, not magic.”

“Wait, you don’t have any powers?”

“What? No, of course not. Just really really old.”

“Oh. That’s kinda disappointing.” Nevertheless, Mason poked her just to test whether she’d fight back with some arcane magic.

“I do have an escape route planned though.” The Lottoqueen suddenly shimmered with a blue light and vanished. Bo’s spectral tendrils floated pitifully away now their prisoner was gone.

“Dammit!” Mabel cursed. “She got away. Teleport.” Noticing all the curious onlookers, she turned to address them. “Show’s over peeps! Your Lottoqueen rigged the whole system and she’s gone! You figure out what to do, I ain’t got time to sort this out.”

She strolled away, leaving the confused clientele of Lottocron to sift through the mess on their own.

Mason shook his head at his sister’s indifference. "Can't take her anywhere. Even in space she’s toppling governments."

Pacifica crossed her arms. “What do you expect from a girl whose main influences were a professional conman and a guy with no moral qualms about handing out crossbows to kids? Sprinkle in a bit of wide-eyed idealism and a penchant for ‘experimenting’, and it’s no wonder she turned out as someone who wants to tear the system down by any means.”

"I was raised by Stan and Ford and I didn't turn out like that."

"Oh come on Mace. You’ve fought some of the richest and most powerful people on Earth; you were there every step of the way when we went up against the literal manifestation of 'the old establishment'."

"Yeah, welcome to the revolution!" Zera cheerily said. Bokamoso gave a hearty laugh as Mason grumbled to himself and filed after Mabel.

* * *

After a few hours resting up, they were once again ready to move on and continue their quest. By a stroke of luck, in the statue’s rampage the four-armed alien who’d won Bo’s hopper disc had run off in fear, leaving them able to slip the device away before he came back.

Gathered back in the arrival bay, the five of them prepared for the next step. They each twisted the dial, sending out the flood of nano-particles that reapplied the survival suits. All except Zera, who didn’t have one of her own. She was only here to say another fond farewell to Mabel.

Meanwhile, Bo was examining his hopper. “We have a small problem. There’s no guarantee my hopper will end up transporting me to the same place as you three. Could you sync us up, so we travel together?”

Mason checked over the hopper and compared to his own. “Hmm, I could sync them, but it’d take time, and we’ve already wasted a lot here,” he gave a small look of disapproval to Bokamoso for spending four whole days here. “It’s a non-trivial calculation, I’d have to compare the 4D data from every single hop we’ve each made.”

“Forget it then,” Bo said nonchalantly. “I’ve made it this far alone. I can carry on.”

“No, you can’t!” Pacifica protested, pointing at his arm, scarred beneath the suit. “You’ve already hurt yourself and nearly lost your suit and hopper! It’s too dangerous out there for one person on their own, even if you can do magic. Especially now we know there are people out there who’ll try to stop us.”

“Maybe… maybe he needs a guide?” Mabel suggested hesitantly. “Someone who has experience travelling the space lanes, someone with a quick wit and street smarts! Maybe another anarchic trickster…”

Zera realised who she was talking about. “What are you saying Mabel? Are you asking me to join your quest? I thought this would be it, one last meeting and then…” She left the possibilities unspoken. It hurt both of them too much to imagine a life where they never saw each other again.

Mabel turned to her brother. “Yo, Dipper, you’ve gotta have put in some kind of backup feature into these hoppers. They can carry more than one person, right?”

He nodded but was cautious with his words. “It is a little riskier to carry two people with one device. But it can be done. If that’s what Zera wants.”

“What do you say?” Mabel took her hands and looked longing into the alien’s eyes. “Would you do it? For me?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never worked for such a noble cause before. I’ve always been in it for myself.” She ran her hand down Mabel’s cheek. “But for you… perhaps it is time I fought for something bigger.”

She looked over to Bokamoso, who shrugged. “Sure, I’m fine taking you with me, fish girl.” He held up the hopper and Zera placed her hand on top of the disc.

Before Bo could activate it, Zera pulled Mabel over for another parting kiss. “This time I’m looking forward to more of that.”

“You can count on it Zera.”

Watching the display, Mason and Pacifica held each other’s hands. Mabel had finally found something like what they had, and it warmed their hearts.

Bo coughed into his fist and split the new lovers apart. “Alright, wrap it up. Like the man said, I’ve wasted enough time already.” He flashed a last grin at Mason and readied for the jump. Zera parted from Mabel and nodded. She was ready too. 

Bo gave a bow, never one to miss a theatrical display at their departure "May chance allow us a swift reunion. For chance is ever raising up the unhappy and casting down the happy, and none can say whether a man's destiny be the one or the other. That’s Sophocles by the way. Farewell, Pines.” He slammed his hand down on Zera’s, triggering the hopper. They were blasted on their way, off on their own parallel journey to map the signal’s origin. Time would tell who would get there first.

Before the trio made their own departure, Mabel asked her brother one last question. “Do you think we’ll run into the others at some point? Wendy and Eli? Candy, Grenda and Andromeda? Little Quattro?”

Mason stared down at his suit’s map tracker, which now only showed three readings. Truthfully, he was unsure of their chances. But maybe there was more to it than random fate. “Well, we can hope. It seems time works differently here. We’ve been going for three weeks, but Bo says he only left 8 days ago. Nevertheless, if he made it through safely, then maybe, just maybe, the others did too. Somewhere, out there in the multiverse…”


	32. The Better World

Sunlight speckled through the canopy of trees, lighting up the forest floor with a warm radiance. Nestled in the woods, all was still between the sturdy trunks of the pines. Other than the soft breeze, there was nothing but the sound of distant gentle birdsong to disrupt the scene. A perfect snapshot of a world at peace.

This was shattered when four loud noises, like the tearing of the skin of reality itself, burst forth. Heralding the arrival of four travellers, the aftermath of the cacophony drifted away, leaving the forest quiet again, but somehow changed by the intrusion of the newcomers.

Candy Chiu tapped her neck and removed her suit’s helmet. She looked around, making sure they were secure. “Alright, this place is habitable. Helmets off, people.”

The other three lowered their helmets and breathed the cool air. “Ah, feels good to breathe again,” Grenda sighed contentedly. “Those methane worlds we passed through made my throat all sore and deep.”

“Ha, your throat’s always like that!” Andromeda piped up. She looked around the new world with unbridled excitement and curiosity. She’d done the same on most worlds they’d travelled through so far. “I wonder what we’ll discover this time!”

The young clone’s innocence wasn’t shared by the fourth traveller. Eli Corazón shook his head and proceeded to burst her bubble. “Probably just another waste of time. Some other distraction to keep us from just moving on.” He was already aggressively checking his wrist device every few seconds, as if he could will it to finish scanning and recharge. Those two processes slowed their forward momentum on every world. 

“It’s a beautiful day at least,” Candy said. “Too few of our destinations have had that level of basic comfort.” 

“But it’s not enough! We’ve already been at this a month! How much more, two months, six, a year?! Ford Pines was in here for 30!”

“And we’ll stay on this mission for that long if that’s what it takes!” Realising she was raising her voice again, she adjusted her glasses and tried to cool things down. “Relax Corazón, I was the project lead, I know the procedure.”

“Yeah, well we’re not back in your lab anymore, or slaving away on the portal in Gravity Falls. We’re lost in the wild with no clear way forward. Maybe it’s time someone else started making the decisions around here. At least then we wouldn’t have to stop every few worlds cause you’re scared of going too fast.”

“The effects of the trans-warp devices on our bodies haven’t been properly tested-“

“That’s what you always say! Or maybe it’s harmless. I’m sick of you lording it over me! So what, you have a fancy Engineering PHD and you run a big flashy company. You just sit behind a desk all day. I’ve been trained for these kinds of missions.”

Grenda coughed into her fist. “Ahem, can we maybe slow down and just talk about this as a group-“

“Shut up!” both Eli and Candy shouted at once, before turning back to bicker with each other. Grenda found a log to rest on and exhaled deeply. 

This was becoming a regular pattern with each jump. Ever since leaving Earth and arriving on their first alien world, a strange planet covered in pink slime, Candy had quickly taken charge, using her seniority in the construction of the portal as leverage to lead the small group of survivors – the only ones who’d made it into the multiverse as far as they knew.

Grenda didn’t have much sway in any of these debates. She was just a lab assistant, a labourer. She wasn’t trained, or smart, or elegant with her words. She was someone whose practical solution to most problems was to punch something. Navigating space-time with two squabbling teammates fighting for dominance wasn’t something she could fix.

Try as she might, she couldn’t keep Andromeda, their innocent companion, from getting involved in the debates. She often tried to preach for understanding, and for everyone to get along. Grenda chuckled to herself. Despite the outward appearance she was nothing like Pacifica. It was like having Mabel here. Except Eli and Candy would probably have listened to Mabel if she were here.

She looked for the clone and saw her staring out intently through the trees. The poor girl looked as uncomfortable in the clinical survival suit as she’d done ever since they were forced to flee quickly into the portal. She’d never been an adventurer like her ‘parents’. Yet she’d begged to be allowed to join the team. Missing out on this once in a lifetime opportunity to see the multiverse was one reason, as well as the desire to stay with her friends and make sure they were safe on the quest.

So far she’d been more trouble than she’d been worth. After breaking down in a flood of tears when they arrived without over half their teammates it had taken a while to calm her down. Even now she was still quick to panic, causing many delays. Then again, Grenda thought, her own assistance to the group had been limited. It was up to the scientist and the Society member to call the shots.

Andromeda herself had tried to drown the argument out and pay attention to their surroundings. It was a new world after all, things might not be as they seemed. There was a pleasant atmosphere to these woods. Welcoming, and almost like she could feel a familiar essence. That was something she’d always been aware of, a higher sense of things, especially when surrounded by nature, with lots of plants or animals around.

Mason had once called this extra sense ‘empathic’. It was something she’d been imbued with due to the nature of her creation, an event she was still hazy about the details. Her clear memories only started later, after whatever trauma had wiped her clean. Anyone she asked who knew about it didn’t like to say for some reason she wasn’t aware of.

Reaching out now with her powers, she drank in the clear sensations. The plants all around her, this forest teeming with life. It all felt so familiar and inviting. “_Tired._”

Andromeda halted. Her concentration wavered. That had been a voice, faint like a whisper on the wind, but there, nonetheless. She looked at her travelling companions. Grenda was sitting forlornly on a fallen trunk. Candy and Eli were still locked in their furious debate.

“Things would be very different around here if Wendy was with us!” Eli had argued this point before, citing the Society’s ‘goal of peace and betterment for all humankind’ in an attempt to lend credence to himself. Andromeda liked the message, but what she’d heard from people like Pacifica or Mason during the summer had given her a different picture of the Society’s way of going about things.

Candy was quick to shoot back. She was always coming up with witty responses. Her intelligence was often on display, noisily. “Yeah right, like your girlfriend could boss us all around like she did all summer. Is she going wave her big laser gun around too?” This was what had given Andromeda pause about the Society of the Open Eye. What kind of ideology could drive someone to try and hunt down old friends? Could motivate lying for months on end? Andromeda could never imagine hurting any living being that way.

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Eli protested. “And neither is May for that matter. She and I… it’s complicated.”

“Yeah, that’s what you always say.”

“_Soon…_”

“Well it’s true! And anyway, May has ten times the experience you do in the field!”

“So what? May’s not here either!”

“Can you guys please be quiet?!” Everyone was surprised by whose voice had shouted, cutting through the argument. Grenda saw Andromeda angrily concentrating and peering off into the distance. “I need to focus!”

“Ann? Are you ok?” Grenda asked. The clone looked slightly pained from effort of whatever she was doing.

“I… I can hear something.”

There it was again, faint, like trying to listen to a phone call with too much noise covering the signal. This time it was a different voice, distinct from the first. “_Soon, once we’re inside. Then the fun can begin._”

“_It’s been too long! Putting up this façade. He knows already._” The first voice again. It was some kind of conversation. It felt like the words were coming from inside her own head. Like whatever she was tapping into was almost a mirror of her own psyche.

“_Relax, any minute soon we’ll have some fresh guests. Boy won’t they be in for a surprise!_” Then Andromeda heard a laugh, a cackle that made her feel cold right down to her soul. She reached up to cover her face with a hand.

“Ann? Speak to me buddy!” Grenda’s not so soothing voice brought her back to reality.

“I’m ok. Not sure what that was.” She rested against a nearby tree. Staring towards the direction the voices had come from, she was suddenly struck by an overwhelming feeling of belonging. There was something more to this place. She looked again at the forest, so much like another she knew. “Home. We’re home.”

“What?” Candy, analytical as ever, was doubtful already. “You’ve got to be kidding. The odds of us successfully returning to Earth, to our specific dimension in particular, via the random jumps is insanely small!”

“Hey, she’s right though,” Eli said, partly out of a desire to merely spite Candy. “This forest does look a lot like the one back in Gravity Falls, you’ve gotta admit.”

“What would you know?” But, as she surveyed more of the surrounding landscape, she had to agree with him. Of course, she wasn’t about to let him know that. “Besides, all forests look vaguely similar anyway. It could be merely our brains associating a familiar pattern with what we’re used to. Right Grenda?“

Disliking being put on the spot she didn’t answer directly. “It couldn’t be home, right? All our searching, all that moving forwards… would it be so bad just to stay now we’ve made it back?”

Andromeda grinned, knowing she was right. These were the woods of Gravity Falls. Before the others could speak sense into her, she dashed off further through the trees. She could hear them following and calling out. She didn’t care. This was her forest. The one she knew most keenly from living so close by in town with Preston and Priscilla.

She stopped and waited for the others to catch up. They arrived, breathing heavily from the run. Andromeda had gone further than she’d realised without even realising it. “I know this set of trees in particular. That means, just through there is the clearing… and the Mystery Shack.”

She placed her hand tentatively on a bush obscuring the open space where the wooden Shack stood. The others didn’t say anything. They knew the significance. Even Candy couldn’t deny that this really was Gravity Falls.

Andromeda pushed the bush aside and they all leant in to enter.

They all stared open mouthed towards the centre of the clearing. Standing proudly around the old wooden frame of the Mystery Shack were gleaming towers of glass and steel, topped with radio dishes. The Shack itself, nestled in the centre of the complex, had no adornment. No sign with the S that would always fall off its hinges. No posters advertising the crazy creations within.

“Ha!” Candy’s laugh punctuated the quiet of the clearing like a bullet being fired. “I knew we weren’t back home! Take that Mr ‘I know better’!” 

She glared at Eli, who crossed his arms and tried to ignore the taunts. “Alright then, what is this then? Soos and Melody have been renovating the place while we’ve been gone?”

“We’re in some kind of parallel reality, dummy!” She turned to Grenda and Andromeda, who looked unsure of the concept. “An Earth where events ran differently to those in our own timeline. Why, it’s fascinating! This confirms a lot of my theories about-“

“Freeze!” Candy was cut off as a barked command rung out across the clearing. Men in uniforms surrounded them in seconds, appearing out of the woods and leaving them no chance of escape. Surrounded in a tight circle, the four of them stuck their hands in the air. 

“Ah, and it seems this reality is none too friendly towards strangers,” Candy said, glancing at her wrist device. It wasn’t recharged yet. “Guess we’re here to stay.”

* * *

Wendy Corduroy was being torn apart. Crushed into an atom then stretched out like taffy. The assault struck her at her very core. She felt diffuse, unsure if she was even able to think consciously anymore. Her sense of self was as malleable as her body. 

Bizarre images of her past appeared. Her father and brothers swirling around in one big blur of Corduroys. Her old teenage friends, melting and leering over her as enormous visages. Even weirder shapes with impossible geometries flashed by. She wasn’t sure if what she was seeing was in some way real, or simply her mind falling apart and hallucinating, gripping hold to any semblance of order and reality. All she knew is that she wasn’t alone. There was another traveller beside her, she could feel them, sharing the same torment and intense forward velocity.

Then just like that it was over, and she was staring up through leaves at a clear blue sky. Scrabbling for the switch that removed her claustrophobic helmet, the calm surroundings were at least a relief after the long struggle. What felt like mere moments before they’d all been gathered in the Shack basement. Then the mad rush, the gut-wrenching suction on her body, and the mind-trip that had been entering the portal itself.

She’d been expecting something like a vista of stars, exotic flora, maybe even an alien lifeform to talk to. Instead they seemingly hadn’t even left the town’s boundary. She’d know these woods anywhere. This was definitely still Gravity Falls.

Even so, there was no point in letting caution go to the wind. She got her feet and unholstered her energy rifle just in case. There didn’t seem to be any immediate hostiles. She heard a low moan nearby. 

Creeping towards the sound, she heard a voice calling out tentatively. “Hello? Anyone there?” She relaxed and lowered the rifle. That voice was one she’d recognise anywhere. It was Mason. So he’d been the one she sensed travelling beside her.

If there was anyone she wanted to be stuck with it would be him. Mabel or Eli would be better practically, Candy would chew her ear off with technical discussions, and she’d seen how decent Pacifica could be in a fight. But Mason had that easy way of explaining things in a down to earth way. He’d absorbed so much of the vast knowledge of the journals. He’d have the best chance of figuring out what went wrong with the portal.

When she pushed aside the foliage to find him however, she was surprised to see that the survival suit was being worn by someone much too small, practically a child. He was startled at first, seeing the barrel of the rifle right in his face. But as he laid eyes on the spiky red hair, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Knowing it was safe, he fiercely tried to prise his helmet off. She gestured for him to stop and pointed to the neck. “Just tap it.”

The helmet folded away, revealing that it was indeed Mason. But somehow younger and wearing a red baseball cap with a strange symbol. “Wendy! Man, I’m glad I’m not alone.”

“Oh, of course!” She slapped her forehead. This wasn’t Mason at all, but his clone, Quattro. “Are you alright, not too shaken up from… whatever that was.”

He nodded, seeming confident about the whole thing. “Nothing could be as bad as my first trip, through the Nightmare Realm. This was smooth sailing by comparison. But wait, shouldn’t we have ended up somewhere else?”

“I know right! I was just thinking the same thing. We’re still on Earth. I might have not gone on as many paranormal adventures as Soos or the twins back in the day, but I know when something’s off. Something must have very gone wrong with the portal.”

“You don’t think maybe it exploded or something?! The others might be hurt!”

She considered their surroundings. There was no sign of any debris, and they themselves were unhurt as far as she could tell. Quattro looked like he wasn’t far off breaking down and panicking though. It was a far cry from the more assured Mason of today she knew.

“One thing at a time little man. Let’s just head back there and see for ourselves.” She cocked her rifle, hearing the satisfying low hum of energy within. “Stay on your toes. The a-mortals might be searching these woods. I think we’re pretty deep in, somewhere over past the floating cliffs.”

Quattro nodded. “I think if we set off now we can reach the Shack by nightfall.”

She raised an eyebrow. “How do you know so much about these woods? I thought you were a clone of Dipper from his first summer? Before he got to know this place better.”

“Me and my brother spent years out in these woods,” he said as if it was nothing. The idea still surprised Wendy. She’d never really bothered to learn about this clone’s history. She’d had all summer yet had tried to stay out of all the personal dynamics. She returned to the task at hand.

“I guess we won’t need these.” Seeing no point in wearing the bright silver and red survival suit, she fiddled with the device on her wrist and successfully found the way to pack it up. As the nanites unbuilt the suit, she was left in her reliable Black Hole armour, sleek, black and a reliable as ever.

Quattro seemed to regard her with an odd look before removing his own suit. Underneath he wore the same outfit Mason always used to wear, with the sleeveless jacket and shorts. 

She frowned. He looked like he was unnerved by her in some way. Then he seemed to forget about whatever was bugging him and coughed into his fist. “I guess it’s just the two of us then. Well, this is kind awkward.”

“Why?” Wendy said, not seeing the issue.

Quattro made waving motions with his hands. “You know… you and me…”

“’You and me’, what?” She still had no idea what he was talking about. He’d started blushing and looked away, towards the route they’d have to walk to get home.

“Oh jeez, this embarrassing to talk about. It’s bad enough with Dipper, but with you…” He took a deep breath, before building up the courage to continue. “Do you know why Dipper made me?”

She shook her head. “Nor Andromeda, though that was an accident, right?”

“Yeah. I was made on purpose. As part of a big plan Dipper had. A plan to… to woo you.”

“To _woo_ me?” She wasn’t sure how to react to this confession. “Oh, oh! Wait, I get it! You mean back when Dip had that adorable little crush on me?”

“It wasn’t _little_!” Quattro shouted out loudly, before checking his volume. “Everything I am is because of Dipper’s desire to be with you. It’s imprinted on my brain, permanently. It’s taken years to try and move on, and now I’m here, with you again, after so long…” He stared at his feet, unsure what to do now he’d let everything out.

Wendy knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder, in some ways reminiscent of the way she’d let Dipper down so many years before. “Look, sorry dude, I know I was flippant. It was just all so long ago for me. Me and your original self moved past all that. I can see how me being around could make you feel all weird inside.”

He looked up at her, still hesitant to trust her completely. Then he charged on forwards. “Come on. Like I said, if we start now we can get back before it’s dark.”

“Sure thing dude,” she called out supportively. There was that more confident side emerging again. She hurried after him, eager to try and mend what small connection they had. If they really were the only two around then they’d need to have each other’s backs. She tried to start up a more casual conversation as they walked through the woods. “Always good to be out in nature, don’t you think? Smelling that fresh air. You said you had some experience in these parts? With your, what was it, brother?”

“Tracey.” He looked slightly pained to recall the memory. “Me’n him were the only survivors of the first night. We couldn’t go back to Dipper, so we hid out here. It was tough, we couldn’t rely on having a normal life. We were always on the move.”

“Boy have I been there,” she muttered to herself. That was a topic she wasn’t too hasty to bring up yet.

“But we had each other at least. That was enough. At least when it wasn’t raining. Glad I have Candy’s pills for that now.”

“So what happened to him? Tracey?”

Quattro gave a hollow laugh. “Andromeda happened.” Enraptured, Wendy listened closely to what he had to say. “She came and tried to convince us she could be our leader. We were dumb and listened.”

“We are talking about the same Andromeda right? The one who tried to get me to wear a fluffy pink sweater last week? Like Mabel always used to.”

“Nobody’s told you about the old Andromeda, have they,” he said in a brash tone. “Let’s just say she didn’t come out of the copier all sunshine and roses. Anyway, Tracey was an unfortunate casualty of all that.”

He left a silence as they continued to walk side by side. The warmth of the sun through the trees and the quiet atmosphere was at odds with the weight of the conversation. Wendy grimaced. “Sorry for bringing it up. I guess I’ve brought up nothing but bad memories today.”

“Ah, it’s not your fault. There are no villains or heroes, just a lot of people making mistakes and trying to fix them. I have the circus though. It’s a good life. I get to meet people from all walks of life, performing is so much fun, and through the underground railroad I can have a taste of the same kind of magical experiences that Dipper does. There’s one thing I’ve never had there, though. I might have had colleagues, friends even. But I never got to have a family again.”

She halted for a moment, letting him walk ahead. Then she quietly spoke. “I’m here for you Quattro. We’re gonna get back to the others, I promise you that.”

He turned to her, the first vestiges of a smile creeping onto his face. “Thanks Wendy. At least I count on you to scare any fearsome attackers. They’ll take one look at the Black Hole and they’ll turn and run away.”

As he carried on along the path, she considered his words. He’d said it with a sense of almost palpable dread, as if he was just as scared too. Was that really what he thought of her? A terrifying brute?

Reminding herself of her old Society promises, those sacred vows she’d taken and sworn to uphold, she tried to tell herself that everything she’d done in the past year had been worth it. And as the sun shone down on Wendy Corduroy, her guilt began to pile up.

* * *

Candy’s group were led into one of the new buildings surrounding the Shack and left to wait in a small reception area. Rather than feeling like a prison it was more like a waiting room, with soft couches and a welcome desk. The guards escorting them moved to stand at each door. So far they hadn’t said much.

“Hey, I’m Annie! Who are you guys?” Andromeda grinned and waved cheerfully at the nearest guard. Despite the gruff exterior he was perturbed by the sudden show of affection from his prisoners. Especially one wearing a fluffy yellow sweater.

“Shush! You’ll get us in more trouble,” Eli whispered. “They’re probably waiting for a higher-up to see us, that’s all.”

“If only these damn trans-warpers didn’t take so long to recharged,” Candy muttered in defeat. “We could be out of here in no time.”

“What do you think this place is?” Grenda asked. To her it looked like the entrance of a slick corporate enterprise, nothing like the ramshackle ‘tied-together-with-string’ business Stan or Soos had always ran.

A set of double doors slid open. Flanked by two more guards was a slender man in a white lab coat. A small pair of round glasses sat on his long nose. “These are the interlopers?” he asked one of the men who’d brought them in. The guard nodded and the scientist looked over the four travellers.

“More of them. No recognisable features though. We’re probably safe from any duplication with this batch.” The scientist had a strong southern accent.

Candy stood to offer her hand to the man. “Candy Chiu.”

The scientist didn’t shake her hand. He merely adjusted his glasses and asked a question in a clipped tone. “Dimension of origin?”

“Excuse me?”

“What is the designation of your home dimension?

Candy stared down the scientist, trying to get a read on him, then answered. “Dimension 46 apostrophe backslash.”

“Really?” The man was mildly amazed to hear that from her. “Well, I must say this is an unusual situation, but not unexpected. We have actually had visitors from your specific dimension before.”

“What, who?” Andromeda spoke up. “You seem kinda familiar by the way.”

“That may as well be. But to answer your first question, a few months ago we were visited by a traveller searching for his home dimension. He was lost and unable to get back there, but we provided some aid to his cause. That rogue Stanford-”

“Wait, do you mean Stanford Pines?!” Eli got to his feet excitedly. “The Ford from our dimension visited you? This is incredible, it’s like we’re experiencing a small part of his legacy.”

“A fan, are you?” the man said quizzically. “Sadly you won’t get to meet _our_ Stanford. He’s currently off-world, on a research trip. Won’t be back for some time, and perhaps it’s better that way. If you know a version of him there may be risk of contamination. Coming into contact with a parallel version of yourself could have calamitous consequences for the nature of causality! I reckon it’s best for everyone if you folks just mosey along-”

“That’s it! I know who you are,” Candy said. “I didn’t see it at first because you looked so different.” She smiled at the scientist warmly. “Would I be right be in saying that you are Fiddleford H. MgGucket?”

“You do know me!” In the same way Eli had stood to attention on hearing Ford’s name, now Candy was looking at him with a sense of awe. The scientist seemed slightly anxious to encounter someone who reacted that way over him.

“Fiddsy?!” Andromeda leapt up and wrapped the parallel version of McGucket into a tight hug. The guards around them tensed, but he gave them a signal to stand down.

“It’s ok. It’s a tight hug but I can take it.”

“You look so… so… young!”

“Young?” McGucket took a step back. “Now hold on a cotton-pickin’ second. Who are you people anyway?”

“I think I can explain,” Candy said. “First, I need something clarified. You said the Stanford of our dimension was here only a few _months_ ago.”

“Why? What’s wrong with that.”

“For us it was more like 15 years ago, if not more.” She delighted in seeing the young scientist’s eyes widen. “An example of the non-linearity of time in this complex multiverse we’ve travelled through, do you think?”

“Why yes, fascinating.”

“Can you two nerd out later?” Andromeda said. “I’m still confused why Fiddleford looks like this.”

“Current year?” Candy clinically asked in the same way McGucket had asked which dimension they’d originated from earlier.

“1986,” he replied. “And you?”

“2028.” 

He once again boggled at the idea. “Incredible. Truly incredible. You’re from _a_ future. Not ours, but an alternate one. So you young folks know me in that far off spacey year of ’28?”

“Know you?” Candy said, barely holding in her admiration. “You were my mentor, my inspiration! I pursued science under your tutelage! We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your work on the portal.”

“Ah, you know about that.”

Across the room, Eli suddenly had a similar reaction to Candy. “Yes, you’re one of the greatest minds in history! One of my Society’s guiding lights!”

McGucket frowned, his mood suddenly souring. “Well, that’s a complex matter, clearly.”

“What is this place then?” Grenda asked. “If you’re a parallel McGucket, then what are the differences?”

“As best as I could surmise on meeting your Stanford, this is a ‘better’ dimension. Our Ford never fell into his portal. He successfully hid his research then reached out to me. We mended our rift and worked to improve the portal. Now you stand in the Institute of Oddology: Our passion project. Here we plumb the depths of science, using our clean portal tech to stretch the limits of what humanity knows.”

“Clean portal tech. Well, would you get a look at that,” Eli said, glaring at Candy with a dripping condescension. “Seems like the Society had the right idea all along.” Candy muttered a curse in her native Korean, then grabbed Eli’s ear. “Hey, what are you-“

“Nice job bringing up the Society, idiot! Do you not know that McGucket founded the whole thing, back when its job was amnesia-fying the townsfolk? Not a good idea to bring it up in front of the actual McGucket, parallel or not!”

“Fine, fine, will you lay off.” He straightened up and addressed McGucket. “Sorry, I’ll try and remember that this is a different world. So, can we see your portal setup? I’m absolutely intrigued by the whole thing.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. You travellers may be out of your native timezone, but there’s a still a risk of running into a parallel incarnation and dissolving one or both of our home dimensions.”

“That’s a thing that can happen?!” Andromeda seemed about to break down in a fit of panic. 

Candy quickly moved to calm the easily upset clone. “It’s fine Ann, the likelihood of that occurrence is nanoscopic. Especially for you, it’s doubtful you even exist in this reality, given the odds of your accidental creation.” This seemed to get her to stop worrying. “None of us are Pines or McGuckets. Now if one of the others were here, then we might have some issues-“

“Others, you say?” McGucket looked anxiously at them. “Your party, it’s bigger than just the four of you, right?” They each nodded in turn. “Ah. Then perhaps I should introduce you to our other visitor. She got here a few days ago. Am I right in guessing Miss Mabel Pines is one of your companions?”

The four of them shared an excited glance. Candy put her hand on McGucket’s shoulder. “Take us to her. Now.”

They passed out of the newer buildings briefly before entering the old wooden Shack at the heart of the institute. It was a gut-punch to see the usually bristling gift shop completely bare. There were only a few small packing crates. The room seemed dark and dusty, clearly it had gone unused for some time. In place of the vending machine that hid the secret path to the basement there was merely an unadorned steel shutter.

McGucket led them quickly through, giving little regard to the empty room. “This was Stanford’s original research cabin, he set it up back before I was called on to help with construction on the portal.”

“That’s a familiar story for me,” Candy muttered. Recurring patterns, not just across time, but across dimensions too it now seemed. The Pines and their portals, she ruefully thought to herself. Can’t have one without the other, and some hapless engineer along for the ride.

McGucket showed them through to the room that in their dimension was the sitting room, where they’d all spent many nights over the last summer, in front of the tv watching some cheesy movie. Unlike the gift shop, this room did resemble its counterpart. There was a long sofa and a table at the far end, though no fish tank and the old tv was clearly in disrepair.

Lying reclined on the couch was indeed Mabel, brown hair cut short and wearing her sensible brown jacket, just as she’d been back on Earth before the mission had separated them. She propped herself up on the sofa when she saw them enter. "Candy? Grenda? Good to see you!"

“And you too, May- ah!” Mabel had slapped Candy on the ass, before moving to do the same to Grenda too. It was rather bolder than they were used to. Mabel had a devilish grin nonetheless, almost like she was delighting in the chaos she’d quickly sown.

When she got to Eli she hesitated, looking him up and down. "And you!... who needs no introduction, yeah…"

Eli put a hand on her cheek, feeling warmth flow through his body to be reunited with someone closer than any other friend could be. "I've missed you a lot. Let me show you just how much." He closed his eyes and leant in for a kiss. 

After a few seconds of passionate making out he realised something was wrong. Opening his eyes, he saw that Mabel was in a state of pure shock, eyes boggling in a complete panic. "May? Are you ok?"

"Uh, fine, yeah, sure. A lot on my mind lately ya know." She awkwardly stepped away, tapping the ends of her fingers together and blushing.

“Have you been coping on your own, out in the multiverse? It’s ok if you’ve been struggling, we’re here to help now.”

“Pshh, I know the multiverse like the back of my hand. It ain’t no thang!” She looked to their back of the group, nodding at the last two to enter. “Fidds, what up my homie! Oh, and Pa- wait." She was momentarily perplexed by Andromeda.

"Yeah, I’m not Ciffy. It's me, Andromeda. Guess it is kinda confusing."

"Right. Andromeda." She nodded disinterestedly. “Yeah, well good to see you guys,” she said as she flopped back down on the sofa. Picking up a vintage Gameboy, she started playing with no real care that her four companions had even arrived.

They shuffled around awkwardly, before Candy spoke up. “Where's your survival suit May? You should have it attached to your hand at all times, just to be safe. You're not even wearing your trans-warp extruder!"

McGucket leant over to explain. “Miss Pines arrived at the institute in a very jumbled state. She came to us confused, lacking in basic provisions or a way home.”

"Exactly,” Mabel nodded. “That's why I'm here, to try and get Fidds to let me borrow some tech."

“Hmm.” McGucket pursed his lips. “I’m still not sure. Our portal is for scientific purposes only. It’s not meant to be a means of reliable transport.”

Mabel rolled her eyes and sunk further back on the couch. It was clearly something she was used to from McGucket by now. The sound of synthy pew-pew noises coming from Mabel’s game became deafening in the quiet wooden room.

“Well, for the time being you can consider yourselves all our welcome guests,” McGucket said in an attempt to break the silence. “You can stay as long as you need to… I don’t know, sort things out. Y’all folks want any refreshments for now?

“Some water to drink would be nice,” Eli said. “Our supplies we brought from home are limited, so we’ve been foraging where it’s safe.” Candy nodded curtly along. Despite their differences, Eli knew how to keep them going on their quest.

“Can I have something with lots of sugar in it?!” Andromeda asked in her perky way.

“Energy drink for me too,” Grenda said, putting her arm round the clone and supporting her. Sometimes her constant optimism convinced her enough to join in.

McGucket shrugged. He wasn’t used to dealing with such energetic people. “Eh, sure, I guess. And you, Miss Pines?”

“I’ll just have a coffee. Make it black.” Then she went back to her game, ignoring the obvious questioning looks the others gave her. With McGucket gone they were left alone with Mabel in the Shack.

Seeing that Mabel wasn’t about to budge, Grenda gestured for the four travellers to head back into the ‘gift shop’. They shuffled out, and she started talking in a low whisper. “Guys, we have to talk: Something is majorly up with Mabel.”

“Yeah, she barely seemed happy to see us at all,” Andromeda said, frowning. It was a rare dissatisfied look for her. “And I know how it should feel for her to see one of our teammates again; we like, share a brain, and I’m buzzing inside so much! We weren’t the only ones that made it, that’s awesome news! But she’s totally disinterested. I’d maybe expect that from Pacifica, but her…”

Ignoring the bizarreness of that statement coming from the lips of someone who looked near identical to Pacifica, Candy weighed in with her opinion. “I'll admit that I only met up with May intermittently over the last few years, but there's something distinctly off about her whole conduct."

“Are we really having this conversation?” Eli shook his head and stepped away from the group. “This is May we’re talking about, she’s my closest friend, and has known you guys for years. I’m sure it’s just shock from the portal, we were all lost and confused at first. Think about how bad it must have been with no-one else to rely on.”

“Be that as it may,” Candy replied, “she’s lost her trans-warp device. That’s simply careless. She’ll have to share one of our devices now, that increases the risks of an accident with each departure. Given that, her attitude is so arrogant.”

"Oh, lay off Candy, she's probably just disoriented from arriving here all on her own." Eli paced back and forth before staring out the window at the trees beyond the clearing. “I trust her. That’s enough to settle this.” Not saying another word, he strode away.

The three girls stayed, unsure of how to proceed. “How long ‘til recharge?” Grenda asked while thinking of what move to make.

“I’d say a few more hours still. It’s hard to tell with the random probabilities.” Candy looked and the uncertainty in Grenda and Andromeda’s eyes. She made a decision and whispered into the screen on her forearm. “Hadron, do a scan for specific radiation emissions being given off by ‘Mabel’. If she really is from our dimension, she should have the exact same trace element decay as the four of us.”

“Sure thing, missy!” The artificial voice of the McGucket from their dimension came out as clear as when he’d still been alive.

Slightly embarrassed, she shut off the screen. “We’ll sort this out. Just a little patience and determination. That’ll show Eli who’s the boss around here.”

* * *

Thundering hooves hurtled across the path. Nothing stood for long in the creatures’ way as they trampled over root and bush in their migration. Wendy waited the for the cacophony to die down, then emerged from the bush. The quickly fading plume of dust was all that was left of the receding horned creatures.

“You can come out now Quattro. Man, this really is home. You don’t get Manotaur stampedes like that anywhere else.”

Brushing leaves off himself, Quattro stumbled out into the blasted clearing. “Some things never change. The sun always rises and sets, and Gravity Falls is always weird as heck.”

Wendy laughed to herself at Quattro innocent phrasing. He was still a kid at heart, despite technically being equivalent to the original Mason in age. “Not far now. We’re a stone’s throw from the Shack, then we can-“

She snapped to attention, hearing the crack of the twig from nearby. In seconds she rolled into a crouch and raised her rifle. Crawling across the path was a small red furry animal. It coiled up into a ball and hissed when it saw her.

“Relax, it’s just a harmless little fox.” Quattro grabbed a snack bar out of his pack. Since they hadn’t made it through the portal it hardly made sense to hoard supplies. Kneeling down, he offered it to the woodland creature. “Here you go.”

The fox eyed him warily, before grabbing the snack and dashing off back into the undergrowth. “See, what did I tell you? He was just overreacting to something unexpected. Like how you just did.”

Wendy sighed and lowered her rifle. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I saw the way you went all ‘action-ready’ back there. One wrong sound and you were ready to blast whatever showed up into atoms!” He shook his head and started walking away.

Wendy fought with herself for a moment, then lowered her rifle and propped it up like a walking stick. The sound of it hitting the ground caught Quattro’s attention and he turned to look at her. She wanted to know what his issue was. “Alright, I see it. You’re uncomfortable around me.”

“No no, you carry on. I’m sure with that big gun you can solve any problem that enters your sights.”

She was taken aback by his sarcastic tone. Compared to Mason at 12 years old he was much more confrontational. Then, she reminded herself, he wasn’t 12. Not really. “Ok, enough snark. Talk to me.” She found a nearby log to rest on. “You and me, right here. Let’s sort this out.” Like she and Mason had done a long time ago in a similar way.

“Oh. Ok.” He rubbed his neck. “I wasn’t expecting the direct approach.”

“Look, I’m not blind. In fact, my Society kind of implies that I be the exact opposite generally.” She smiled, trying to make light of it. It just made him look more uneasy.

“That’s… kinda the problem. You and your group… your cult.” _Cult_. He spat the word out like it was a swear.

“It’s not like that, Dip- ach, sorry, Quattro. I feel like I was just having this conversation with your brother… cousin… father?” She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time for analysing whatever complicated mess of a relationship the clone had with his creator. “I believe in the noble ideas of the founders. We can improve the world through science, through increasing our knowledge.”

“But you’re so different!” Quattro paced around. He looked like he was struggling to find the right words. “Look, I only really knew you for a few weeks, if that. But I’ve had the memory of you stamped hard in my mind for all the time since then. Back then you were laidback, you didn’t let any of life’s worries get to you. From what I’ve seen of you this summer you keep to yourself mostly. I’ve seen you lash out at the slightest provocation, like you did just now. And- look, you came to me in Russia, right?”

She nodded, letting him continue. “You asked me where the Pines were going. You wanted to stop them causing problems by assembling a portal, I get that. But why, once you found them again, did you keep up the charade? Why go out of your way to hurt them? Weren’t they your friends, I don’t understand? I remember what time we had together, that short span. You were friends with Dipper then, I know you were.” He opened his arms wide. “There, that’s why I don’t feel completely safe around you. Sorry to say it, but it’s true.”

Wendy didn’t say anything for a while. She stared at Quattro, mulling over everything he’d admitted. The words hurt, she had to admit that. But there was nothing false in what he’d said. Feeling an incredible pressure building within herself, she practically blurted out what she had to say. “I was scared! Ok, you want the truth, that’s it!”

“Scared, I don’t- what?”

Quieter, she closed her eyes and continued. “I was scared of admitting who I really was. For years I was ashamed of myself. Ashamed of failing to be anything more in life that homeless bum moving from one worthless crappy job to another. I didn’t tell the twins or Pacifica who I was, because then they’d know that I didn’t make it. I didn’t want them thinking the one person they’d looked up to the most could end up wasting their life so hard.” She buried her head in her hands. “I know, trying to stop them by any means… to hurt them… it wasn’t the right thing to do. I thought that if I could scare them off, I wouldn’t have to let them know that I’m just a sham. And when I finally slipped up and they found out… they couldn’t relate to everything I’d been through. Not even Mabel, with all her high ideals. They hadn’t truly touched how low I’d gotten. Nobody could understand.”

She wanted to get up and keep going. She also wanted to crawl up in a ball and forget this conversation had taken place. Forgetting had always worked in the past.

“I understand.” She raised her head. Quattro was looking at her with an immense amount of sympathy. She found a level of common ground with him she’d never expected to find. Of course this clone, who’d fended for years in the woods, knew exactly how she felt. “What about the Society then? Why’d you join that after all you’d been through?”

She silently pulled the helmet of her Black Hole armour out of her pack and cradled it in her arms. The moulded blank features hid all traces of a clear identity. Anyone could put this on and lose themselves in the role. Become the Black Hole and suck in the true self. That had been part of the appeal to her.

“When I joined the Society I was just another cog in the machine. I’m like that a-mortal, the Tool Maker. I became the Black Hole, totally. No identity, only the faceless killing machine. How else could I live with myself?”

“You don’t have to be that way anymore. What you went through doesn’t make you a failure. You’re more than that. Look at us both. We’re on a mission to possibly save our whole world, or even the whole multiverse! That’s incredible. We’re not failures, we’re not mistakes! We’re heroes!”

He hopped up and started casually strolling on his way. “If you want, how about protecting somebody instead of hunting them? Maybe that’s a better life. Not far to get home now.” The clone gave her one last smile, then vanished through the trees.

She once again considered the helmet. It had struck so much terror into the heart of her closest friends. At the time she’d justified it in many ways: They hadn’t contacted her in so long, they wouldn’t care, or that the ends would justify the means. Now she wasn’t so sure.

Maybe Quattro was right. If they were alone on this crusade through space, then perhaps it would be better if she left the Society behind, at least for now. She had a much more tangible goal right in front her after all. Keeping what was left of their party safe from further harm. It was all she could do to start to make up for her actions.

“Wendy! I need you over here, now!” The call came from not much further ahead. Applying what Quattro had described as her ‘overreactive’ instincts, she left any indecision behind and quickly moved to his position. 

He was in a small clearing, staring down at the earth. There was something embedded there, made of stone. “I’ve seen this thing before! Wendy, this object… I think it’s cursed.”

When she saw what he’d found, she muttered under her breath. “Boy, you don’t know how right you are.”

* * *

Taking a careful look both ways before returning to the living room, Eli snuck inside. Mabel was still reclining on the couch, seemingly intent on doing nothing more than whiling away the hours playing video games. Trying not to be perturbed by her oddness, he slipped onto the couch beside her.

“So. How’s it been, out in the multiverse all by your lonesome?”

She looked over the rim of her Gameboy. “Oh, you know. Lots of crazy stuff out there. Ha ha!” She laughed theatrically.

“Uh, yeah. Same with us.” He checked back out in the corridor again, making absolutely sure they were alone before launching into what he had come here to say. “I’ve been thinking, May. Now you’re here, I think it’s time I ditched Candy and her support squad.”

“Oh really?” Mabel’s eyebrows shot up.

“It’s clear they don’t trust me. And for good reason.” Mabel set the Gameboy down. He’d finally got her attention. “Before we set out, I was set a task. Nothing to do with all that ‘mysterious signal’ stuff. That’s just a smokescreen. Sure, your brother and Pacifica can do what they want, but I’m here for something else. I’m after the portal.”

Mabel gave a look of feigned surprise. “You don’t say.”

“It’s like Ivan always told us. Our portal back home is safer than the original, yes. But it’s still a huge risk every time it’s opened. This dimension is what I’ve been looking for. One with clean portal tech we can scavenge. If we can get a scan of the specs, maybe a look at the instruments, then we can take that knowledge back home.” He cupped her cheek with a hand and leant in close, so he was whispering. “What do you say? Like we discussed, a chance to make the world a better place? Candy doesn’t see it, but I know your eyes are open.”

He brushed some of her hair away to belabour the point. Heart beating in his chest, he stared longingly into her hazel eyes as he awaited her decision.

“Sure, it sounds like a great idea. Let’s do it!”

“Wait, what?! Just like that?” He was confused by how eager she sounded. This was the big secret he’d been keeping for weeks, hoping against hope that he’d get the chance to finally complete the Society’s goal. Now the person he cared for most had accepted his plan without a moment’s hesitation. “So, you’ll come with me to inspect the portal here?”

Mabel’s look turned into a wicked grin, and for the first time Eli felt a slight twinge of doubt. “Alright lover boy. Portal time. I’ve been waiting for this.”

* * *

“I’m not sure this is a good idea-“

“Shh, you’ll get us caught.” Candy finished cutting the small incision in the floorboards, switching off the improvised welding tool they’d brought. They were in the large empty space that in their dimension would be the main ‘museum’ part of the Shack. “If you would so please?”

Grenda gave an annoyed sigh, yet hefted the floorboards away nonetheless. There was a small concrete-walled corridor below.

“Perfect,” Candy said. “Just as I calculated, this position is precisely above the hall leading to the hidden elevator.” She hopped down into the space, leaving Grenda and Andromeda hovering. “Come on you two,” she called up. “No point standing around.”

“Do you really wanna go along with her?” Andromeda asked in a worried tone. “Fiddleford will be back soon, we shouldn’t mess with stuff like this.”

Grenda was torn between Andromeda’s innocent eyes and the dark corridor below. “I trust Candy, I know that for sure. She’s got us this far.”

“But what if she’s wrong about Mabel? We shouldn’t judge our friend for acting a little different.”

Grenda laid a hand on the clone’s shoulder and gave a small smile. “It’s great that you believe in her, it really is. You’re a very caring person Ann. But we also can’t ignore that something really weird is going on. So, are you coming? We could use an extra pair of strong hands.”

Andromeda chewed her lip. Then, as if this was something as simple as a skip through a meadow of flowers, she bounded into the gap in the floor. “The more the merrier!”

Grenda shrugged. That girl had some weird bipolar issues for sure. Still, as long as she kept her head on her shoulders there’d be an undeniable strength in numbers. She’d seen Andromeda lift construction equipment ten times her own weight before, so at least she was unlikely to be in any physical danger.

Down the hallway Candy was tapping her foot by the elevator. “Finally. I had to call the lift up from below. You know what that means. Someone’s been down there, recently.”

They all crammed into the tight box and headed down to the base level of the Shack. As they’d worked on the portal over the summer, they’d all become acquainted with this secret space under the Shack. Up to this point, this dimension’s version was much the same.

However, when the elevator doors slid open on the third floor below, the large changes in the timeline became apparent. Instead of bare earth walls, everything was clad in clean white panels. The layout of the room was roughly the same, with the divided control room and portal space, but all the technical equipment had been replaced with much more up to date stuff – at least for 1986.

There was a small tremor that shook the Shack. Peering through the glass divider, Candy smacked a hand down on the nearest console. “I knew it.”

Grenda looked through as well, and gasped when she saw that the portal beyond was spinning up to open. There were two people silhouetted in the blue glow, one of them slumped against a wall. Before she could give a word of caution, Candy had stormed through into the room.

Unlike whenever the portal had been active back home, there was no sensation of gravity disappearing, and not even a slightest hint of a tug or pull towards it. This portal was contained. The figure lying unconscious on the ground was Eli. He’d been tied up with cables.

Candy quickly checked his pulse. He was still breathing, just knocked out for now. Leaving the question of what he was doing down here for later, she angrily turned and shouted at the other figure, who still had their back to the new arrivals. “Mabel! Stop this right now!”

Mabel turned around slowly, revealing a sly grin on her face. “Took you long enough.”

“We know you’re not our dimension’s Mabel.” She jabbed a finger at her forearm. “My scan only confirmed the obvious. You lied.”

Mabel put the back of her hand on her forehead and gave a mock gasp. “What gave me away? Oh, was it the lack of bear hugs, ooh, or maybe my speech level was too complex for that dummy? Or perhaps it was the obvious indifference? I just couldn’t work up enough affection for you losers.”

“Who are you?” Grenda asked. She cracked her knuckles to show she wasn’t messing around. “How do you know about our dimension? And _what_ are you? Are you from another parallel Gravity Falls?”

The girl standing by the portal gave a sarcastic slow clap. “The hunk of muscle figured out the glaringly obvious, well done. I met your Mabel a long time ago. Tell me, is she still just as simperingly _nice_? Always rubbed me the wrong way how far off the central finite curve I have to go to find any other Mabel’s like me.”

“Like you?” Candy narrowed her eyes. “Tell us then. If you really are Mabel.”

“Of course I’m Mabel!” She snapped. “I’m the most Mabel Mabel in this whole damn multiverse. The only one who really lives for themselves.”

“You don’t act much like her,” Candy pointed out. “Would the real Mabel knock out her… well, not boyfriend. Whatever Eli is to you.”

“Who? Oh, you mean pretty boy down there?” She lazily gestured at Eli. “He was a handy tool, nothing more. I thought I was never gonna break into this place, but with all the distraction from your arrival I had a nice opportunity. But yeah, I’ve met you 46 backslashers before. Had a run in with your Mabel and her Grunkles. Did not end well for me.”

“An alternate version of Mabel…” Grenda’s mind was reeling from the implications. 

“So much for Fidds’ doom and gloom about meeting parallels, am I right?” Mabel muttered “I’m what you might call, Anti-Mabel. Don’t bother looking in me up in one of my brother’s stupid journals either. I never met his counterpart from your milquetoast dimension.”

“So not just an alternate,” Candy mused. “You’re some kind of evil copy. I suppose with the probabilities we were bound to encounter something like this. Though the quantum flux required to bring us together must be infinitesimally small.”

“Hmm, were you talking? I couldn’t hear over the sound of how boring you were being.” Anti-Mabel leant on the tall safety switch in front of the portal like it was a cane. “Where I’m from, my Candy is _much_ more interesting. None of this science talk, Anti-Candy’s a hacker. A very good one, fond of breaking into online banks and taking all the money without anyone noticing.”

“And you,” she turned to Grenda. “Lemme guess, you’re not a professional wrestler where you come from?”

“What are you then?” Grenda shot back, filled with venom for the girl insulting them. “If I’m thinking right, and you’re a skewed copy of our Mabel, then you must be some kind of crazy terrorist or something.”

This time Anti-Mabel’s claps were more honest. “Bravo, spot on. I like bringing down governments, it’s what I live for. The anarchy, the destruction. Had to skip on my dimension after the heat got too much to handle.”

A quiet voice spoke up. “Why… why are you like this?” Anti-Mabel stood upright and peered at the back of the room. Andromeda was half hiding behind Grenda’s bulk. The way ‘Mabel’ was acting was unlike anything the clone had expected.

“Oh, you brought the freak too. Still not sure what you’re meant to be. You look like Pacifica, but you’re wearing a sweater?”

“I’m neither!” Andromeda replied with more passion in her voice than she’d intended. “I’m Andromeda, unique!”

“A freethinker, eh?” Anti-Mabel said dryly. “Well then, whatever you are, you’re just in time for the light show.” She swept her arm around and highlighted the glowing maw of the portal. 

Andromeda then heard it again, one of the voices she’d picked up when they’d first arrived. “_Soon soon soon, it’s all starting to fray at the edges!_”

“So what do you want with the portal?” Grenda asked, completely ignorant of the voice.

“_Can we show them now?_” 

Anti-Mabel grinned to herself. “I’m just getting to that bit, hold on.”

“_Do it now, the eye trick._”

“Oh hush, you’ll spoil the surprise.”

“Who are you talking to?” Candy asked, looking around. “There’s no-one else here but us.”

“No.” Andromeda squinted as if she could pinpoint the extra voice. It was so much clearer now, like it was in the room with them.

“Might as well spill the beans.” Anti-Mabel removed her brown jacket, exposing her arms. Unlike the Mabel they knew, these arms were bare, devoid of the multitude of colourful patterns of tattoos. The only thing on this Mabel was a discreet symbol inked on her upper right arm. A small sigil of an inverted triangle. The portal.

“You see, I’m not exactly here on my own. I have a… a benefactor, so to speak, who so kindly agreed to help me out.”

“Benefactor?” Candy asked, still seeing nobody.

“More like a passenger. He’s been oh so eager to meet with you. Any minute now we’ll have this portal working to our standards.”

She looked up at the spinning gateway, her eyes reflecting the eerie blue light. Getting caught by McGucket was now the least of Candy, Grenda, and Andromeda’s problems.

* * *

Out in the woods, Wendy and Quattro examined the discovery they’d stumbled onto. The statue was sticking out of the mud at a slanted angle. It was geometrically triangular. Perched on the statue’s head was a slender top hat, and there was a skinny arm sticking out of the body, hand open ready to accept any passer-by who wished to grasp hold.

“This is it, the cursed idol!” Quattro was fearful of getting too close to the statue. “Me and Tracey camped near this a few times. The Shack’s just through those trees, but we never liked to stay near the statue. It always gave us a weird vibe. Nightmares too.”

He crept closer, trying to appear bold in front of his companion. As he neared the statue, his apprehension waned. “Wait, it feels… different. It doesn’t sense the same as it used to. It’s like there’s something missing. What do you think Wendy? Did you ever see anything like this with Dipper or Mabel? Wendy?”

All the colour had drained from her face. She stared down at the statue, suddenly incredibly worried. “You really don’t recognise this at all?” Quattro gave a small shake of his head. “We’re in very big trouble. And I don’t think this is really our home dimension. Not if _He’s_ here.”

* * *

Bathed in the light of the portal, Anti-Mabel closed her eyes and started laughing to herself. The laugh was a hollow, bitter sound, but as it progressed, her tone became increasingly manic. Now the jeering laugh overtook her whole body, as she convulsed in fits. Her voice had morphed into something nasally.

A mad grin stretched as far as it could go, exposing her teeth and creasing deep lines across her cheeks. Her eyes burst open. Except they weren’t Mabel’s eyes any longer. The pupils were slitted like that of a snake, and the sclerae were an almost painfully bright yellow.

The new voice, the one Andromeda had heard before, spoke from Anti-Mabel’s lips “Hello world. Nice to meet you lovely ladies! There’s a new guy in charge around here. Name’s Bill! Bill Cipher! Won’t this be fun!”


	33. The Anti-Gravity

Peering through the gloom, a dark chamber underground faded into view. The vision was murky, unclear. Bill Cipher wasn’t used to looking through human eyes, let alone two of them. It took him a moment to figure out how to the dilate the pupils so he could make out the people standing in the pale blue light.

There was a petite dark-haired Asian, her brow set in a determined line. There was a tall muscle-bound one, balling her hands into fists. Last there was a shivering girl with light-brown hair, who was failing to appear braver than she was actually feeling.

Forcing air to flow into his lungs, he moved the flap of skin in the middle of his face that the humans used for speech. “Well well well! What have we here? Three delightful new specimens to play with! And this flesh suit, so freeing. Well-toned muscles, strong stamina. Eyes could use some improvement though; you should learn to wear glasses!”

Only he could hear the voice that replied, coming from inside his host’s brain. “_And ruin my _aesthetic_? No thank you. Now stop hogging the ride!_”

“Give me a moment to readjust. Hold on-“

From Candy, Grenda, and Andromeda’s perspective, standing opposite them before the open portal, the parallel Mabel’s possessed face began to gurn and scrunch up on itself. Pained grunts in two voices came from her mouth. Then a relative calm passed over Anti-Mabel, and she stood upright and proud. Half her face remained with the rictus grin and boggling eye, while the other softened into a sly grin and cold glare. One eye had returned to normal, but the other was still had Bill’s wild pupil.

“There we go,” Anti-Mabel said. “Now we’re both in the driver’s seat.”

Andromeda gave a sudden outburst, as if her fear was overcome by the curiosity of the two beings sharing a body in front of her. “Bill-Mabel! Mabill! You’re using her body. Like a puppet on a… wait, this feels weirdly familiar.” She trailed off, lost in thought.

Anti-Mabel crossed her arms and jabbed a thumb towards the spinning vortex of energy behind her. “I was travelling near Fish-Bowl Space when I ran into our old isosceles friend. He and I both share a love of tearing down worlds.”

Candy knew the powers that Bill possessed and gingerly stepped forwards, trying to give the sense of being on top of the situation. “But you were destroyed, erased! I thought-“

“What, Glasses?” Bill cut her off, and his half of the face stretched in an even bigger grin, tugging Mabel’s facial muscles upwards. “That there was only one copy of me in this infinite multiverse? Different form, different time, baby! We’re Half-chaos-”

“Half-calculating,” Anti-Mabel finished.

“And you finish each other’s sentences now?” Grenda sneered at the pair. “Half-cutesy as well?” Both halves of the face frowned, slightly out of time with each other, producing an unsettling effect, like it was only the imitation of a real human emotion.

“How are you still around though?” Candy was still trying to put all the pieces together in her mind. “Judging by the condition of the Shack in this reality I thought that you’d already been vanquished.”

Bill rolled his eye, another unsettling sight when only one half of the face responded properly. “In this timeline my efforts to take over the world were halted. Sixer managed to see reason, the blind fool, and shut the portal project down for further testing. Even got that Tennessee hick back to help him out! Left me totally stranded!”

“This Bill was weak, drifting through space with no way through to Earth,” Anti-Mabel said. “He needed to make a deal; he didn’t have the energy for anything else. He needed someone to get him across the dimensions and I offered him a lift. It’s not easy out here, traveling through multiple realities. I don’t know why your little band has come visiting, but you’ve dipped your toes in a very wide stream. Now it’s time for what lives in the water to come up for a bite.”

“Enough with the threats,” Grenda moved towards Anti-Mabel, cracking her knuckles as she did so. Even if she had Bill on her side, her body was still just human after all. There was only so much they could do to them. “What do you freaks want?”

Anti-Mabel looked up at the portal, almost in reverence. She knocked on the metal casing with a fist, as if testing out its reliability. “Now that we have this portal activated we can start to break down the barriers. This dimension’s like your one. They’ve neutered all the fun out of it. This portal’s so secure, reliable-“

“Safe.” Candy said. “The word you’re looking for is safe.”

“More like boring,” Bill said. “Where’s the fun where there’s no risk of dimensional annihilation whenever someone opens the back door?! They use this thing for fields trips and minor research. DULL dull DULL dull DULL!!! Back in my day guys only made portals to understand the fundamentals of all reality! But now we can start to fix that. Every second we leave this thing open the rift in space gets bigger and bigger. Soon I’ll be able to fully manifest again!”

“Why?” Andromeda quietly said. She’d barely spoken up to this point. She’d overcome by a strange feeling ever since Cipher had appeared. “Why do all this, hurt everyone living here?”

“Why not?!” Bill cackled. “You humans with your _morality_. I’m only in this for the pure chaos! Ooh, and I can almost taste it off you three.” Unnerving Candy and Grenda, Bill’s side of the face twisted into a hideous orgasmic smile, the closest thing to pleasure he could display. “I might be too weak to get into your minds directly, but oh, what memories I can skim on the surface! That parallel me was quite a champ. Weirdmageddon looks like it was a hell of a good time!”

“Uh huh,” Anti-Mabel agreed. “Can’t wait until we get to burn this place down.”

“Burning?” Andromeda clutched her forehead. “I- I don’t know what you mean. I don’t remember… so much fire… dad’s face- ah!” She fell to her knees and slammed her eyes shut.

Candy and Grenda rushed to her side. “Ann! What’s happening?” Candy asked.

“Speak to us, we’re here for you.” Grenda put a reassuring hand on Andromeda’s shoulder, but had to jerk it away. Her body felt hot, like she had a major fever.

“What is she anyway?” Anti-Mabel asked, with a hint of genuine curiosity. “Some kind of clone of Pacifica and me combined? That’s ironic, a parallel me and a clone of me in the same place, lol.” Now she was treating it like a joke, as if the clone was something to gawk at.

All the while Andromeda was doubled over, unable to open her eyes. “I can see things! Images! I don’t know what they are! There’s so much fire, people running scared, and a triangle laughing above it all. But there’s something else too. An army in the woods, plants moving on their own. I feel so much anger coursing through me, and too much crammed into my head! I want it to stop!”

Candy quickly shared a glance with Grenda. “It’s her old memories, something must be triggering them to resurface. Hold on Ann!” She turned on Anti-Mabel and Bill. “Stop whatever you’re doing! It’s hurting her!”

“Yeah, she might just die from the overload!” Bill cackled gleefully. “It’ll be so much fun!”

“Why you vile, odious, repulsive-“

“My my, looks like someone owns a thesaurus.”

Candy had enough of his taunts. “Grenda, a little help.” The hefty girl raised her fists and started marching towards the alternate version of her friend. Anti-Mabel backed up right beside the portal. Her short hair swayed gently. Had this portal been like the original prototype, the force she’d be experiencing would have been a hundred times greater. It was a testament to the improvements Ford and McGucket had added that the effects were so minimal now.

As Grenda and Candy fenced her in, she wagged a finger. “Ah ah ah, not so close. My gauntlet is a lot more deadly than what you’re probably used to. Hidden blade!” She flicked her wrist and a sharp dagger shot out.

Candy crossed her arms smugly. “I don’t know, our Mabel has a mini-pistol under her wrist.”

“Wow, that’s… huh.” Slightly disappointed, Anti-Mabel, quickly moved on. “Well, still. I can make a pretty nasty mess if you come close.” She waved the blade about to keep them back.

The two of them lunged, trying to grab Anti-Mabel’s wrist before she could get a strike. Just like their own Mabel though she was too slippery. She squeezed through their grip, doing a brief wall-run to gain ground. Instead of fleeing from the basement, she pointed her blade down at Andromeda, who was still curled up in a ball on the floor.

“How about I cut up this one then?” Grenda and Candy dared not move to try and intercept. “Or this one, over here?” She flailed the knife towards Eli, wrapped up in cables beside the wall. Now they couldn’t tell whether it was her speaking or Bill’s influence, the voices were too indistinct and merged. “This is my plan, my ascension. You stay back and let the chaos unfold!”

“I don’t think so!” A rain of blue energy bolts exploded around Anti-Mabel. Hissing like a cat, she covered her head and bolted on all-fours for the door to the control room and the elevator out. Candy and Grenda looked up, surprised to see the parallel McGucket carrying a long blaster and floating serenely in the air. He descended to the floor and tossed his gun aside. “Are you folks all alright?”

“What was that hovering tech!” Candy breathlessly said.

“Ah, that’s nothing. Just a localised anti-grav I developed based on a side-effect of the portal.” Despite his humble words Candy still looked at him with an impressed awe. “At least that interloper is gone. We can try and get things back to normal around here.”

“Uh, about that.” Grenda said. McGucket raised an eyebrow. Grenda looked at Andromeda, who seemed to have passed the worst of what she’d been feeling and was now breathing slowly. She looked to Eli, tangled up in his own mess. Finally she looked up at the portal, the open mouth menacingly spinning around. “We might have a bigger problem than it seems. What do you know about Bill Cipher?” 

From the way he started uncontrollably shaking and clawing at his hair, it was obvious that McGucket knew _everything_ about Cipher.

* * *

“I’m telling you man; this thing is completely inert.”

Out in the woods, at the edge of the clearing that housed the science institute which had sprung up around the Shack in this timeline, Wendy and Quattro, were studying a macabre statue. Wendy had finished a complete chemical analysis of the odd triangular idol and was now thumbing through Journal 8, one of the backups Mason had provided. There didn’t seem to be much useful information regarding Cipher or alternate timelines in there.

“So it’s just a boring, regular stone statue? Why is it made to look like this guy then, Cipher?” Quattro rapped his knuckles on it, any fear he had of the statue fading away. The stone was cold, lifeless. “He doesn’t look so tough, but if half of the stories you’ve told me about him are true then who in their right mind would carve this?”

“Too many questions, not enough answers. Those buildings through the trees are another mystery.” She’d taken a quick foray to explore the new surroundings. There was no doubt now, from the tall structures built in the clearing around the Shack, that this wasn’t their home dimension. “At least we know the portal worked. No need to worry about any a-mortals here.”

“What do we do next? Is there a way we can keep travelling?” He started probing his survival suit, looking for some kind of system diagnostic or info-guide.

“Wait, there’s someone coming.” Leaves rustled towards the Shack’s clearing. Someone was running from the institute.

“Let’s try a diplomatic approach this time.” 

“Wait, hold on!” 

Quattro ignored her warning and stood as tall as he could between the statue and the clearing. Wendy cursed and begrudgingly joined him. “Fine, we’ll do it your way. But just in case…” She readied the Black Hole helmet, prepared to slip it on at a moment’s notice.

Tensing as the bushes in front of them began to shake, they were shocked when, of all people, Mabel careened out at them. Both surprised to see her, they gasped out loud.

She halted in her tracks, as confused as they were. “A Wendy? And… _kid_ Dipper?! Fuck it, I don’t have time for this crap.” 

Quattro yelped as Mabel shot her wrist towards them and a blade erupted out from beneath it. Wendy dragged him to side, the blade swinging through the air where he’d just been standing. Before Mabel could attack again, she’d slipped on the helmet and engaged her armour. She melted into the air, invisible.

Quattro felt vulnerable without her presence, but seconds later the baffled Mabel sprawled out in the dirt. Wendy briefly flickered into sight, finishing off a kick into their attacker’s back. “Alright then, _Mabel_, talk.” With the Black Hole’s voice synthesiser active Quattro was once again reminded of how terrifying Wendy could appear when she wanted to. “What are you, a local to this dimension?”

“As local as you two are,” Mabel grunted. She rolled over onto her front. “Dammit, this plan is a bust. I can wait a little longer, everything will work out soon enough!” Her body burst into blue flames. With a hideous cackle she seemed to burn up and disintegrate. Just before vanishing completely, Wendy thought she saw a flicker of yellow in one of Mabel’s eyes. Then the ashes flew off deeper into the woods.

Wendy watched them go, then shook her head. “I was right. It is Bill.” Even through the vocal alteration Quattro could detect genuine terror in those words. 

“Oh boy,” he gulped, “Oh boy, oh boy! What are we gonna do?!”

“Freeze!” 

A security guard armed with a baton had pushed his way out of the clearing. On seeing Wendy decked out in full body armour, he lowered his armament.

“Take us to whoever’s in charge around here!” She barked. “Go!”

Instinctively responding to the command, the sweating guard flattened the bushes in their path. “Right this way!”

* * *

“You made it! It’s so good to see you two!” Andromeda rushed across the reception room of the institute to greet Wendy and Quattro. After tightly embracing Wendy (a slightly uncomfortable process due to her hard armour), she lifted Quattro up and squeezed him. “I knew we weren’t the only ones!”

Wendy took a step back, confused by Andromeda’s overexcited welcome. “Woah, simmer down there girl, it’s not that amazing. It’s only been a few hours.”

“Hours?!” Andromeda boggled. “Did you two bump your heads? We’ve been away for exactly 3 weeks, 3 days, and 12 hours!”

“Uh, impressive that you can remember that,” Quattro said before Andromeda grabbed his hand.

“Come on, no time to waste! You’ve gotta meet the others!”

The clone led the befuddled pair through the shining institute to the old Shack in the middle of the complex. In the lightly furnished living room they found Candy and Grenda pacing back and forth. When they saw Wendy and Quattro enter, their faces lit up and they ran over to embrace the pair.

“Incredible!” Candy stated, eyes wide at their sudden appearance. “You’re the originals from our dimension too, the chances of an intersection are astronomical.”

“Give ‘em some space Candy, jeez!” Grenda pulled her overexcited colleague away to let the newcomers breathe. “Getting hugged by Ann and scienced at by Candy in the span of five minutes would tire anyone out,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

Wendy nodded curtly, appreciating the gesture, then noticed Eli nursing a sore head in the corner, who’d declined to get up and greet them. He looked tired, and even a bit guilty of something, staring off rather blankly. Questions about that could come later.

Grinning, Quattro was happy to be reunited, even if for him the separation had been brief. “Guys, wow! We thought we were all alone for a minute out there.”

“Yes, that,” Wendy said, getting back to the point. “We thought at first there’d been an accident, this place looked so much like home that we didn’t think we’d even made it through the portal.”

Candy nodded along too, fascinated by the conversation. “It seems time in this wide multiverse is nowhere near linear. For instance, in this dimension we’re in presently it’s 1986!”

“Guess we’ve missed out on a lot. Must have a rough time for you guys. At least you had someone trained in self-defence.” She jabbed a thumb at Eli. “What’s his problem anyway?”

Grenda shrugged. “He’s pissed because he got tricked. Guess we all were for a while.”

“Oh right. By... Mabel?” Wendy asked.

Quattro ran through the options. “Clone Mabel? Copy Mabel? Possessed Mabel?”

“Sort of right.” Candy removed her glasses to indicate the severity of the threat. “She’s Anti-Mabel. A version from a parallel dimension which is practically the polar opposite of our own. And she’s working with an old enemy of ours.”

“Bill Cipher,” Wendy stated with an air of dread.

“The creepy triangle guy!” Quattro added. “We saw a statue of him out in the woods.”

“That’s no statue,” a new voice spat. McGucket entered the living room, looking serious and not ready to be dealing with a new set of visitors to his world.

“McGucket?!” Wendy said, dumbfounded. “Looking good for an old-timer.”

He waved a hand. “Later. I’m sure your friends can fill you in. Now to the pressing matters. That rock effigy you found in the woods is essentially the last vestige of Cipher’s physical form. Now he can only exist in our dimension via a host body. That would be the young Miss Pines: your so called Anti-Mabel.”

“A malevolent version of Mabel hiding out in the woods, plotting evil plans to do with the portal and wanting revenge. Why does that sound familiar?” Quattro asked, giving a pointed look at Andromeda. His fellow clone however merely had a blank expression, like she hadn’t heard a word he’d said.

Candy aggressively nudged Quattro in the side and hissed in his ear. “Don’t talk about that so blatantly. Andromeda can’t be reminded of that, it could break her mind, or worse… bring back her old memories.” 

Quattro shuddered. He’d seen what she’d been like at first, full of resentment and hate and pain. He gave a quick nod, accepting Candy’s order to stay quiet on the subject.

McGucket meanwhile was shaking his head. “I should’ve acted sooner with that girl. I suspected she was a fake. ‘Great Niece’, ha. As if Stanford would ever be close to his family.”

“No, actually that’s normal where we come from too,” Candy stated casually. “Ford’s always cared a lot about Mabel, and her brother.”

“That’s mighty odd.” McGucket scratched his chin. To Candy it looked like a mild stress response. Her own McGucket had often assumed similar tics and posture when struggling over a puzzle. “Ford’s not spoken to another family member since his no-good brother showed up.”

“Wait, you mean Grunkle Stan?” Quattro asked, perking up at the mention. “Where is he now?”

“How should I know?” McGucket replied dismissively. “He took Journal 1 away for safekeeping and we haven’t heard hide nor hair from him since. Good riddance if you ask me, man was nothing but trouble.”

Quattro felt crestfallen. Despite having only truly known Stan for a handful of weeks, back before Mason had created him that night of the party, much of his life had been spent influenced by his Great Uncle’s ways. Running a circus, performing on stage, these were all skills he was proud to inherit from the old man. Where Mason had largely been driven by admiration of Ford, Quattro had chosen a different path and a different inspiration.

To hear how little he mattered in this dimension was a shock. “Hey, word of advice dude.” McGucket listened to him curiously. “You should tell Ford to give Stan call sometime. I don’t think he’ll regret it.”

“Hmm, maybe I will. What exactly is your relation to him, kid? You look oddly familiar, like that Mabel girl did.”

“That’s… a really complicated story.” He gave an apologetic smile and hoped he wouldn’t press him on the topic.

“Alright, enough chit-chat about the past.” Wendy already had a stern look on her face, eyeing up Candy and Grenda. “We’ve got a big problem in the present, Mabel and Cipher. We have to deal with them, and for that we all need to be acting our best. That includes all of us.” She turned to Eli and raised an eyebrow.

He sighed and got to his feet slowly. “I’m here. Ready to serve.” His shoulders were slouched and there was an air of bitterness at being made to answer for himself that Wendy didn’t like.

“Eli, what’s going on? You seem unsure of yourself, undisciplined.”

“That’s because he doesn’t want to talk about what he’s been up to,” Candy said, pushing Wendy aside “Tell us then, why exactly were you helping Anti-Mabel break into the portal chamber?”

“Look, I thought she was our Mabel, ok!” he angrily shot back.

“That’s not what I mean. You went down there with her for a reason. I think you should explain to all of us, right now. I especially want to see Wendy’s reaction.”

A shadow of doubt flickered over Wendy’s face before Eli spoke again. “I was fulfilling my mission… our mission.”

“Mission?” Grenda too came over to confront Eli. “Our mission is to pinpoint the signal, to find what the a-mortals were after, to save our home! What you did has nothing to do with that.” Cracking her knuckles, she advanced on him. “You were hiding this from us!”

“Says the ones who tried to grow a McGucket clone in secret,” Eli retorted. “Trying to stave off death, that’s practically the a-mortals' MO!”

“Guys, no! You shouldn’t fight.” Andromeda shoved between the two parties and held them at bay. “We’re all in this together, friends!”

Candy laid as gentle a hand as she could on the clone’s shoulder. “Ann, I know you always see the best in people, but for the good of us all we need to know what Eli was up to. If he’s working against us-“

“It was the Society’s directive!” Eli shouted, turning every head in the room back to him. “Ivan’s _last_ directive. Given to both of us.” He glanced at Wendy.

Guiltily, she continued his explanation. “We were after more than just this signal. A part of this whole expedition was to find places like this. Dimensions with advanced technology we could bring back home. Specifically, _portal_ technology.”

“I thought the tech here was perfect,” Eli said. “Clean portals with no disastrous side effects. Even back home, your portal, Candy, was still risky to open. Me and Wendy had a dream of finding a utopia we could use to enrich our own world. That was the plan. Happy now?”

Candy and Grenda didn’t reply, too shocked by the confession. They both considered the portal tech far too dangerous to enter widespread public use, no matter the Society of the Open Eye’s noble intentions. Andromeda had a look of hurt; she wasn’t used to those close to her failing the high ideals she saw in them.

Quattro just looked to Wendy, a gaze which pierced into her, not accusatory or judging, but willing her to make a different choice. Then it was like a wall of ice within her melted.

“They’re right.”

Eli turned to her, baffled by what she’d said. “But Wendy-“

“No Eli, you listen.” He knew not to protest her instructions. One look at the dark armour she wore would’ve intimidated anyone into silence. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. All the hurt we’ve caused… I’ve caused. There must be a better way. I thought Mabel taught you that. We can’t take the easy option with this kind of thing. Earth just isn’t ready for that kind of big change.”

“What about the goal? What about showing everyone the truth? I thought you believed in the cause.”

“Maybe once. Now I’m not so sure. Look at Cipher. This world is in dire peril because of the exact kind of portal tech we’ve been searching for. It’s happening again, just like it did in our world 16 years ago. I shouldn’t have ignored what I’d seen.” Eli frowned, a sad look like a puppy whose favourite toy had been snatched away. “We can find a new way forward. First things first, we all have to focus on what’s at hand.”

“Exactly, we’ve dallied far too long,” Candy spoke up. “Our trans-warp devices will be recharged by now. I can sync us up, then we can all continue on to the next-“

“But what about us?” McGucket said from the back of the room. “It’s all well and good you just moseying on your way. You’ll only be leaving an unhinged girl and the most dangerous force in the cosmos behind.”

“This isn’t our fight, McGucket.” A wave of disappointed faces from the rest of the group shook Candy’s resolve. She was determined to show herself as the leader though. “I’m sure you can counteract the pair of them. We were never supposed to come here anyway.”

“You did come here though,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at the group of six. “If you hadn’t arrived in our world, Anti-Mabel wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sabotage our portal setup. Now the rift is widening. My guards are preventing Cipher from returning to his true form, at the statue, but that won’t hold things back forever. He’ll prise the rift open and devour everything in his path. Then the damage will spread out from this world. Bill won’t be satisfied with one measly planet; he’ll rampage through the whole universe. When that’s finished, he’ll move on and destroy other realms, never stopping as this corner of the multiverse is left a barren waste. He could even follow you home. That there evil Mabel knows which dimension you come from.”

“See what I meant about ‘dangerous tech’?” Wendy nudged Eli in the ribs.

He threw up his hands. “Ok, ok, I get the message. It was a bad idea to help Mabel so readily, and I guess this mess is kinda our fault.” Rubbing his neck, he addressed the others, giving a particularly apologetic look towards Candy. “I know you’re the one in charge and all. You came up with the mission, built our portal, all that. But I think I agree that we should stay here until we’ve cleaned everything up. Until Cipher and Anti-Mabel are stopped. What do you think… leader?”

He held out his hand, offering up a gesture of surrender to Candy’s judgement. His face tightened in an anxious knot, loosening when felt her firm grip reciprocate the offer.

“It’s agreed. We stay.”

“Great, all great, fantastic.” Grenda gave a slow clap. “Now, first problem: How in the world do we save the day?”

“That is a large conundrum, I’ll grant you.” Candy took off her glasses and stared, deep in thought. “It’s not as though we can form our own Zodiac. Not that it worked last time either…”

“Psst, hey Ann,” Quattro whispered, “what’s a Zodiac?” His fellow clone just shrugged.

“If only Bokamoso were here; a proper magic user like that would be a great asset against a being like Cipher,” Wendy said, punching a fist into her other hand. “It’ll be hard to outsmart the two of them. Cipher has knowledge beyond anything we can understand, and Mabel knows people. She knows them better than any of us, what makes them tick, how to get under their skin. Turned to evil that’s not something we can easily counteract.”

“We’re just not experienced at this,” Candy said, already feeling defeated before they’d begun. “Pacifica and the twins are the real adventurers. They went all around the world together, and here we are. The first time we have to step up to the plate and all we’ve done today is squabble among ourselves.”

“But they didn’t start like that!” Quattro protested. “They were just as inexperienced once. It’s not like they’ve always got along with each other either.”

“Yeah, you should have seen their reunion in Seattle,” Eli said, laughing at the memory. “A frosty reception is underselling it; they were at each other’s throats.”

“Don’t forget how they used to act around Pacifica too,” Wendy added, nodding perhaps a bit too eagerly. “They couldn’t stand the sight of her.”

“Now look them though! They came through stronger, together!” Quattro pulled the six of them into a group huddle around the battered old tv in the corner of the room. “We’ve all worked alongside them doing crazier things. Maybe it’s time we acted like proper adventurers, without their help. Let’s think, what would those three do in this situation?”

“Go in recklessly without a plan?” Wendy offered.

“Try and use some magic solution that only makes things worse?” said Grenda.

“Ooh, ooh, I know!” Andromeda shot her arm up into the air, looking like she could hardly hold in what she had to say. “They’d look in the journal!” Before any of the others could speak, she was reaching into her backpack to pull out her own journal.

McGucket raised an eyebrow when he saw the book she retrieved, with a cover of dark blue dotted with gold stars, and the number 9. “You folks keep journals too? What is it with Pines and those darned things?”

Ignoring him, Andromeda flipped through the pages. “There’s gotta be something helpful in this thing, that’s why Mason gave us these copies.” The others all gathered around, watching Andromeda’s intent study. They’d never seen her so focused like this before.

At the back of each of the journals, Mason had written a bestiary. It was index marking off every single creature, artefact, or random magical curio the Pines had ever discovered. They were listed alphabetically, with a column marking which journal the full entry could be found in, and a basic overview of any weaknesses if that was relevant. With there now being 7 completed journals, stretching back 50 years and multiple authors, there were obviously a lot of things on the list.

Andromeda scanned down the list quickly to the section containing entries starting with B. She noticed that a few entries had a llama icon instead of a number – those were entries that were written in Pacifica’s journal specifically. Moving onwards, she found the row labelled ‘Bill Cipher’. 

The listed weakness was that he couldn’t fully enter a person’s mind without them first agreeing to a deal. She shuddered to think that Anti-Mabel must have leapt at the chance to accept any kind of arrangement with that monster. The weakness wasn’t enough to defeat him for good though. The full write-ups on Bill were stated as being in Journals 2 and 3.

She started to despair. Mason obviously hadn’t bothered to copy any information on Bill into the new journals. As far as they were all concerned, he was long dead. They hadn’t counted on the multiverse surprising them this way. Without further answers they couldn’t hope to stand up to him and Mabel’s alliance.

Wendy noticed the clone’s disappointment. “Hey, maybe it’s for the best. I mean, half the time Dipper and Mabel got into trouble it was because they were chasing after something from those pages.”

Then Andromeda had a thought. The real Journal 3, the one from their world, might be somewhere far away. But this was a different world. Maybe the old rules didn’t apply.

* * *

With a smooth mechanical hiss, the hatch in the earth slid open. The book that Andromeda saw within was neater than what she’d been expecting, the pages that much less frayed, the smell of damp reduced. Yet it was still unmistakeably Journal number 3.

She reverently removed the book from its subtle hiding place and checked through it. The pages were covered in scrawled notes, Ford’s handwriting legible and clear. Cipher’s entry would be right before the blank pages; where Ford had stopped writing in fear of the machinations working against him.

The page on Bill Cipher was a mess. Inkblots marked the page, the handwriting was shaky, and even small splatters of blood were present on the dusty paper. It would have to do.

“I’ve got it, everything we need is here,” Andromeda called out to her companion, the parallel McGucket. He was staring down the spiral staircase rimming one of the tall pines, that led down into their old unused bunker. “Hey, you ok Fiddleford?”

“Oh, fine, fine. I thought all this business with Cipher had ended a few years ago. Now we have to dig up all our mistakes.” He kicked a pebble and it rattled as it fell into the murky depths. “Still, we can begin to set things right. Show me the book.”

He traced down the page and took note of a long incantation, ending with the repeated phrase, _Magister Mentium_! “This is the spell we need to fight Cipher on his own turf. You folks sure about this?”

Andromeda tucked the journal under her arm and nodded eagerly. “I know we can do it, with the power of teamwork!” McGucket winced slightly at her cliched words but knew that the girl likely meant it with all her heart. There was a naïve innocence there he wasn’t about to shatter.

The sound of a branch cracking above them alerted them moments before a black-clad figure hopped down from her treetop vantage. Wendy had been surveying their surroundings from above, making sure they weren’t about to meet their uninvited guests again.

“Let’s get this party started. Ann, get down to the others, it’s not safe out here.”

“But I-“

“Go, let the professionals and those who’ve tangled with Cipher before handle this.” The unsure clone did as she was told and bounded down the staircase into the gloom.

Wendy turned to McGucket, eager to hear some good news for once. “My guards are covering the statue and portal. Anti-Mabel will have no choice but to confront us head on if she wants to help her ally manifest. They’ll need someone well-versed in the technology if they want an alternative option.

“It’s the perfect lure to get them out here,” Wendy confirmed. “Get into position, we don’t have long.” She slipped on her helmet and tapped the side. “Radio to all teams, Young Man McGucket has analysed the journal text and is heading down. We’re good to go with the plan, over.”

“Hey, Wendy!” Andromeda was poking her head around the hidden door in the tree.

“I thought I told you to get inside!”

“I can still hear them!”

Taken aback, Wendy asked the obvious next question. “Um, hear who?”

“Mabel and Bill! They’re talking to each other, not far away I think.” Trying not to be too perturbed that Andromeda, the mysterious clone she knew all too little about, could somehow pick up on mental conversations from a distance, she took stock in the knowledge that their plan seemed to be working.

“Good work Ann. If you’re right, then we’ve got them right where we want them.”

* * *

By the time Anti-Mabel and her insane alien passenger arrived at the bunker’s secret entrance there was no-one to be seen. She sniffed the air like a bloodhound, sensing through Bill’s latent powers that there were living minds nearby. His powers were growing even when he seemed dormant inside her.

She peered into the hole surrounding the sunken tree trunk. If there were stragglers out here it would give her a shot at gaining a bargaining chip. A hostage or two could get her back to Bill’s statue or the portal. Then the real fun would start.

“Enough waiting around kid, let’s go carve up some interdimensional intruders!”

She leapt down to the entrance, not wasting any time walking down the stairs. Rushing through the first control room and straight through the air lock, she finally ran into someone in the next room. Every available wall was covered in square panels marked with arcane symbols.

Standing by the opposite door leading deeper underground were Wendy, Eli, and Grenda, each one providing a menacing deterrent. She wasn’t going to let them get in her way.

“If it isn’t the ones you’ve determined are the least important. Stand aside you three, or I’ll hurt you real bad.” She extended her wrist-blade and ran it down past her cheek. 

Eli winced at how uncomfortably seductive she was making the gesture. She even winked at him. “Enough is enough May. Stop here and we can all talk about this.”

“Pfft, I don’t even know you. Guess I never met your counterpart back home in my own dimension. Doesn’t look like I was missing much,” she said, looking him up and down contemptuously.

Without a second’s hesitation, Wendy cocked her rifle and aimed it square at Anti-Mabel’s chest. “Alright, like Eli said, enough games. I’ve had a tiring enough day as it is.”

“Yeah, buzz off back to your own dimension,” Grenda barked.

Anti-Mabel gave a light chuckle. “You don’t seem to understand. I’m wanted in dozens of dimensions, I can’t just ‘go home’. And why would I want to? When there is so much out there. You wouldn’t believe the realities I’ve seen. Timelines where Pacifica found the journal and me and Dipper know magic. Ones where the roles are switched, and Stan and Ford come to visit their Great Aunt. And worst of all is the one where we’re all freaky hybrid monsters. Deer-Dipper is something I never wanna see again.”

The three of them shared a confused glance as she shuddered at the memory. She took a measured step forward and dramatically placed a hand on her chest. “So tell me, oh high and mighty travellers: What do I have to be scared of here? A musclebound idiot? A lovestruck dummy? Don’t think I haven’t seen the obvious trap either. How dumb do you think I am?” 

She pointed with her tippy toe back at one of the panels she’d just passed over, which had she stepped on it would have triggered the defence protocol.

“Ah, you noticed that,” Eli said. “Oops.”

“Oops indeed, lover boy. You’re no threat. Although…” Anti-Mabel’s gaze drifted from Eli to Grenda, before finally settling on Wendy. 

For the first time, Wendy thought she saw the parallel Mabel look the slightest bit intimidated. “What’s the matter? Afraid to tangle with the Black Hole?” She held her blank helmet out in front of her face. “Ooh, so scary.”

Anti-Mabel raised her knife, incensed at being mocked, but lowered it again nonetheless. “Even back home I knew not to mess with a Corduroy. You’re trouble.“

“So now you’ll put down the knife and surrender instead of messing with me?” The raised eyebrow she got back told her enough. “That’s a no then. Shame, would hate to mess up that face.”

Anti-Mabel shrugged and raised a small grin. “It’s not like I’m your Mabel, her pretty mug will be safe and sound no matter what.”

She suddenly heard the voice from within. Bill was ready. “Get to the point, I’m getting hungry again!”

“Alright guys, sorry, but it’s the big man’s turn to take over.” She closed her eyes and waited for Bill’s influence to take control. For the next few minutes she’d merely be a vessel for him to act through. She could sit back and watch the carnage.

As one of her eyes flickered back open, this time staring with bright yellow, Wendy gave a sudden shout. “Now!” The three defenders charged towards her. Anti-Mabel raised her arms to fight but was nonplussed when they simply ran straight past her. Then she paled when she heard Wendy reciting a chant. “Fidentius Omnium. Magister Mentium Icarian.”

“No no no!” She rushed to intercept them before the spell could be completed, but the walls started to close in on her. The fools had triggered the security mechanism. Grinding rusted panels jutted out and threatened to crush her if she didn’t move. She wasn’t close enough to make it back to the entrance, so pushed forwards and leapt for the bunker door.

She made it just as the panels from the roof and ceiling connected, smashing together and sealing off the way. Angry with herself for being tricked, she slammed on the wall. “So much for ripping those three to shreds. We’ll have to find another way out. Hello? Are you listening to me?”

There was no response from the voice inside her head. She was alone down here in the dark tunnel. “Bill? Bill!? Where did you go!? Don’t you dare leave me down here!”

Wendy, Eli, and Grenda felt themselves fly out of their bodies. Floating and spinning around wildly, they passed intangibly through the wall towards Anti-Mabel, before carrying on into her body and beyond. A blinding white flash and they arrived inside her mind.

“Woah. That was a real trip,” Eli said, underselling the comment somewhat. “Where are we now?” He stood up to look around.

The world around him was like a polaroid photograph, drained of colour and flickering intermittently. There were rolling hills, and a small town by the coast nearby. It looked idyllic, almost too idyllic, like everything was a little too peaceful and happy. 

He covered his face to stare at the blindingly bright sun. “Is that… a face… in the sun? A happy smiley face?!”

“This should be Mabel’s memory, right? Her inner thoughts?” Grenda asked. “Uh, guys, look that that.” She pointed to a nearby tree. Hanging from its branches were cheerful stuffed animals, singing and dancing together cheerfully. “This is all so innocent and sweet. It’s making me wanna barf.”

While Eli and Grenda looked around in confusion, Wendy felt a chill flooding back to her. “Oh no. Oh this is not a good place to be.” The world around began to fade into colour. Instead the static image, it was now alive, filled with rainbows and sunshine. “I know what this is. Guys, welcome to Mabel-Land.”

“This doesn’t seem so bad,” Eli said. “Looks like May’s mind alright.” His words caught in his throat as the diversity of colour began to fade into one monolithic block of deep crimson.

The smiling sun, who a moment before had been whistling contentedly, gave a bloodcurdling scream before melting away entirely. Over the horizon rose a giant triangular figure. He looked down on them with his single boggling eye and gave a little chuckle. “Look what the cat dragged in. Finally, some company in this place! So. Who wants to play first?“

* * *

“Feeding in the new generator now. Should be enough to kickstart the systems.”

“Roger, powering up the tubes, give me 50% until they’re charged up.”

McGucket ran across the cavern to adjust the power input dials. There was a steady hum signifying that everything was running smoothly. “Not long now. Let’s just hope your friends completed their part of the plan.”

“They’ll do their job. Don’t lose focus here.” Candy checked her list of notes in Journal 13 again. The only missing ingredient in the plan was their enemy herself. “Hadron, lifeform scan.”

The device on her wrist beeped a few times, then the voice of Old Man McGucket came from the speaker. “Two humans located in main cavern. Third human approaching from the entrance-way.”

The younger McGucket leant over the screen, visibly fascinated with his artificial copy. “That’s a neat piece’a kit you’ve got there, Miss Chiu. If I do say so myself.” 

“Well how do you do partner!” Hadron chirped back.

Candy offered her arm for McGucket to study closer. She was glad he was finally starting to warm to her. “It’s all thanks to your teachings. I could never have completed the memory partition without all the mountains of research you undertook.”

“Ah, you mean you know about ‘the prototype’,” he said ominously. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently. My big mistake. But perhaps on this occasion-“

“The Memory eraser gun? You can’t be serious. After what it did to you?”

“To me? What do you mean?”

“Oh right. That never happened to this version of you.” She noticed his confusion but kept tight-lipped. “Best I not say. I don’t want to influence this dimension too much. But know that I am ethically opposed to erasing this alternate Mabel’s memory. I had enough trouble dealing with the fallout regarding what happened with Ann to consider that again. No, we’ll stick to my plan.”

Hadron suddenly barked out information. “Alert! Two life-signs approaching from the lower tunnels!”

Candy needed more information. “Identify, are they human, some other species?”

“Figures identified as humanoid-paper constructs.”

Candy switched on a flashlight and shone it down one of the few tunnels leading away. There were fewer passageways than in their own dimension: The shapeshifter hadn’t broken out and carved the place up yet. The light from the torch beam illuminated the two figures.

“Ann, Quattro, I thought we told you to stay down there, out of the way! It’s for your own safety.”

“We wanna help too!” Quattro protested. There was a lot of bravado in the young clone’s spirit, her was just as determined to be part of the adventure as his creator had been at the same age.

Andromeda was less sure, but still wasn’t budging. “You’re our friends, we have to try and keep you all safe. No matter the risks.”

“Third lifeform approaching! Hee hee, we’re in for a real barnstormer of a party now!”

Candy glanced at her wrist scanner and tensed up. She was here. Under hissed breaths she gave instructions to the clones and McGucket. “Go, stay out of sight. I can handle this.” They each ran off in different directions. She switched off the flashlight and waited in the darkness for Anti-Mabel to approach.

Soon she could hear a low muttering heading her way. “Lousy stinking parallels, making me look like a fool. If Bill doesn’t sort them out…” Anti-Mabel halted. “Candy Chiu. I know you’re here.”

Candy reluctantly shone the flashlight at her visitor. No point hiding. When the light caught Anti-Mabel’s eye she thought for a second that she could see a slight yellow glint, just a faint image and then it was gone. Bill’s influence was still present in a minor way,

Peering through the darkness, Anti-Mabel wasted no time. She advanced on Candy determinedly. “We meet again. I don’t know what your cohorts have done to Bill, but I can still make you pay here in the real world.”

“No chance of a peaceful outcome then?” Candy backed away as her adversary had already crossed the cavern in a few quick strides. She was getting too close and was too confident. Their plan needed to be more obscured to work properly.

“Nope,” Anti-Mabel answered simply. “I’m not getting caught up monologuing again like with your friends outside.”

With that, she charged forwards, knife first. Candy almost didn’t duck in time before the sharp instrument missed her by an inch and deflected off a metal box behind her. She rolled and backed up against metal bars. This was a decent position to start confusing Anti-Mabel.

The alternate version of her friend once again lunged. This time Candy was ready, diving out of the way so that her knife arm flew between the bars into the cage. All the rattling disturbed the cage’s occupant. Anti-Mabel was forced to jump back as a fleshy pink creature pressed against the bars and clawed at her mercilessly.

Candy kept the cage between herself and Mabel, hoping to use the creature to disorient her. Between the bars, she watched as the alien monster shifted forms. There were briefly two Mabels in the room with her.

“No dumb shapeshifter trick is gonna keep me from finding you!” Anti-Mabel ignored the trapped reflection of herself and lashed out at the bars. The clanging of metal made the beast retreat. With a mighty kick, she pushed the cage out of the way. 

Candy had no defence left. This hadn’t gone the way she’d planned; it had been too fast for her to properly respond. Anti-Mabel raised her knife arm and glowered above her. 

Then the cavalry charged in.

* * *

Lording over his three new victims, Bill Cipher spun his cane around and laughed maniacally. “It’s been so long since I’ve had mortal minds to play with. I wonder which one of you will break first?”

Wendy, Grenda, and Eli stood as defiantly as they could in the flaming hellscape surrounding them. The twisted childhood paradise of Mabel’s memory had come to life with Bill pulling the strings. Anything could happen.

“I’m done talking! You’re going down!” Grenda impulsively grabbed Wendy’s energy rifle and let out a burst of fire at the smug triangle. She gasped in surprise after the smoke from her shots cleared. Cipher had vanished.

“Nice aim! Shame I can move at the speed of thought.” Bill, now right beside them, flicked Grenda’s nose. “Boop, you’re it! My turn.” His fists lit with blue flame and started shooting jets towards Grenda. There was nowhere to run

“Uh oh.” In seconds she was aflame. Unlike real fire, this didn’t burn her skin or scar her. But it was still immensely hot. She ran around in circles trying to quell the blaze.

Wendy called out and tried to calm her down. “Grenda, hold still! It’s only dream fire, it can’t really hurt us!”

“Tell that to my flaming behind!”

“Hey, ugly!” Eli called to Cipher. The triangle’s response was to fly around his head in circles. “I’m not afraid of some dumb trickster.”

“That’s cause you’re the only one who hasn’t met me before.” Bill floated over in a reclining pose and hugged Eli’s head closely. His one eye was filled with eager glee, the closest his mouthless face could come to smiling. “You got heart, kid. I’ll have fun ripping it out!”

Bill punched straight through Eli’s sweatshirt and took his breath away. His skinny arm receded slowly out of the gaping hole in Eli’s chest, dragging a beating, pulsing organ with him. Eli groped around at the smooth hole, feeling the yawning absence.

“Ooh, this is a messy one.” Bill poked at the heart, making Eli twinge remotely.

Every time the triangle touched the organ he saw flashes of Mabel. He saw her hatred at his betrayal, their passionate reconciliation in the Shack, his foolish trust in Anti-Mabel. Overall he saw confusion, feelings that refused to cohere, emotions that wouldn’t give him a solid answer. He didn’t know what he felt towards Mabel, but having a demon trying to provoke him about it wasn’t helping. 

“Wow-wee, you and her have issues!” Bill cackled but cried out as a shot blasted through his chest. “Ahh!” He too now had a round hold in his body, right where his silly bowtie had been.

Smoke drifted up from the barrel of Wendy’s rifle. She raised the weapon and looked approvingly at her work. “Not so cocky now, are you!”

She didn’t like how Bill’s brow folded into a deep glare. “Now you’ve made me really mad.” His body reformed, fading back as if it had never been damaged. While Eli was still immobilised with worry about his missing heart and Grenda ran around screaming, Wendy’s small resistance felt like it was about to be decisively crushed.

Bill grew again in front of her, towering above and trapping her in that solid one-eyed glare. “I have plans, Red. Big plans. And nobody’s getting in my way. Not these clowns in here with us, not Glasses out there, not the Llama or Fez, and certainly not you! I’ve got so many bright ideas. How about a Wendy-go round! With real Wendigos! Or I could make that little invisibility suit of your backfire and make your skin melt! Or I could mock that awful haircut! Or maybe something simpler…” He raised his massive index finger and hovered it over her. “Sure would be a shame if I slipped and…”

He started lowering the black digit towards her. Wendy braced for impact, while Eli and Grenda were both momentarily too shocked to remember their own problems. Bill’s finger collided with the ground, sending up clouds of dust.

Then, nothing. No evil laugh, no quippy pun, no satisfaction. Instead the triangle furrowed his brow in frustration. Against all odds, the finger started rising again. 

Wendy lifted it with ease, then threw Bill with all her might. He lost all sense of control and went flying across Mabel-Land ungracefully. Wendy smirked at the outcome. “Oh yeah, I know what I’m doing. It’s all about perception. Like Ivan taught us, see this for how it really is. Cipher has no real power here, it’s just a figment of our minds.”

As she said that, Eli and Grenda realised they were now back to normal, no fire or missing organs anymore.

Eli touched his chest and inwardly cursed himself. He knew the same teachings as Wendy but had failed to apply them properly. Cipher was right: He really was unsure of himself regarding Mabel and all that had happened recently. He’d just have to try his best, as over the horizon Cipher was climbing out of the hole Wendy had thrown him into. The fight wasn’t over yet.

* * *

With a furious cry, both paper clones rushed Anti-Mabel. Their push knocked her back and gave Candy space to roll away. Quattro tried to use his extra strength to pin Anti-Mabel down, but he was too short to reach across and keep both arms down. Anti-Mabel flailed and kicked him off.

Before Andromeda could try to hold her down, she waved the knife at her, keeping the clone at arm’s length. “Ugh, give me a break!” Anti-Mabel was just about ready to tear her hair out at all the interruptions. “I will not be stopped by some geeks and a pair of confused tissue paper copies!”

Quattro raised his fists, and though he was afraid of Anti-Mabel, and felt too weak to fight, still stood up for his friends. “You won’t ever win! You’re all alone and we outnumber you! The real Mabel understands that!”

Anti-Mabel’s harsh chuckle echoed around the cavern. “What are you meant to be exactly? Baby Dipper? Trying to beat me with _friendship and love_? Newsflash dummy: There is no ‘real’ Mabel. I’m just as authentic as your boring goodie-two shoes.”

Backing away, Quattro tried to look for a way out through one of the side tunnels. He wasn’t an adventurer, much as he idolised Mason for that kind of life. He was an entertainer, a performer. His confidence was a thin façade, one that Anti-Mabel was visibly enjoying tearing down.

He tried to quicken his pace but slipped on the moist floor of the cavern. He laid on his back, and the evil version of his sister retracted her wrist-blade and put a thoughtful hand to her chin. “That’s right. Paper melts in water. Not enough of it down here, but I know something else that can melt you fine.”

The tattoo of the portal on her shoulder began to glow, sending out a bright pale-blue light in the cavern. Her hands burst into blue flames. Gleefully cackling, she set alight a circle of fire, encasing Quattro inside. Her eyes were almost totally yellow again. A sign that Bill was winning against the others in the dreamscape.

As the flames licked at his face and the heat became unbearable, over the sounds of Mabel’s laughter he heard something wooshing towards him. Flying headfirst through the circle of flame, McGucket picked Quattro up and flew out again. Quattro marvelled at the smooth flight, though his pilot had an anxious look on his face.

The engineer came to a hovering stop, floating in the centre of the tunnel. They were some distance from the main bunker cavern now. Far from any hope of carrying out the plan.

“There you are.” Anti-Mabel flashed a devilish grin and advanced on the pair. “I’ve been looking for you, McGucket. Finally an egghead to help me open the portal wider. All Bill got before was a little taste. I need something to make a big enough rift to let him manifest fully, and you’re my ticket.”

From one of her pockets came a small round sphere which she tossed at the ground beneath McGucket. It exploded into a cloud of green smoke. McGucket started choking and flying about wildly, before crashing in the dirt. Quattro tumbled over him. At least he was thankful to his paper lungs, which seemed immune to the gas attack. McGucket was now prone on the ground, moaning from the impact, as Anti-Mabel approached.

Quattro desperately looked for a way out. McGucket was out cold. Andromeda had run off scared. Candy was probably trying to salvage whatever plan for they had for stopping Anti-Mabel. It was him against a crazed adversary who’d stop at nothing. Despite himself, despite everything he’d tried for years to get over, he longed for Wendy to be beside him, protecting him.

Then Mabel halted, breath catching in her throat. Quattro turned to see what had made her stop. He too gasped. Like she’d answered his call, Wendy had appeared from down the tunnel, wearing her full Black Hole regalia. Quattro almost shivered when he heard the modulated voice echo around the cave, which was never not unsettling. “It’s time to stop. Let Fiddleford and the kid go, Mabel.”

“You can’t be here,” she stammered, stepping back from McGucket’s body. “You’re out there, or in the dreamscape!”

“Oh, I’m in your head alright. I’m always there. Because, for whatever reason, you fear me.”

“No!” Anti-Mabel broke into a run back towards the main cavern, fleeing in terror from the black spectre.

The Black Hole bent down to check on McGucket, then looked to Quattro. “He’ll be alright. Time for the final phase. She’ll never see it coming.”

Standing between Anti-Mabel and her return to the bunker was Andromeda. Unlike with Wendy there was no fear of the strange clone, just a morbid fascination. “Out of my way, I’ve had enough of this place.”

Andromeda opened her arms wide. “No more fighting, let’s do this together.”

Anti-Mabel laughed and shook her head. How naive could this girl be? She gave a good long look at the clone, trying to get a bead on her, while also recalling what she’d learnt second-hand from Bill skimming her thoughts. “You dyed your hair brown? What is that, ‘Mabel-Envy’? How pathetic.”

“It feels more natural this colour, That’s all. Don’t you like to express yourself?”

“Sure. I express myself by destroying planets and sowing chaos on a galactic scale. I don’t have time for your trivial _self-discovery_ or whatever. Step aside.” She gritted her teeth and took a step towards Andromeda. “I’m getting out of here before Wendy gets back.”

“Why are you so afraid of her?” Andromeda said, cocking her head to the side like a confused puppy. Then she closed her eyes and Anti-Mabel could only describe her expression as if she were breathing in a deep scent. “It surrounds you so much. Does our Mabel have the same insecurity around Wendy? I don’t think so. You act out, you tear things down. Wendy doesn’t need to do anything but be herself and she’s admired by everyone.”

Anti-Mabel surprised herself by becoming genuinely invested in what the clone had to say. “Are you reading my mind? Don’t try to psychoanalyse me, missy!”

“You accused me of envy, but that’s what this is, isn’t it? It’s ok, trust me. I know what it’s like to have a past that people don’t like to talk about. It defines me even though I don’t have the whole picture. You can change too.” Andromeda wrapped her arms around Anti-Mabel.

“I- no, get away! I’m not a hugging person!”

“And I’m not hugging you!”

Anti-Mabel suddenly realised this wasn’t a friendly embrace after all. She furiously tried to break free, but the clone had an iron grip. “You’re crushing my ribs!”

“That’s the idea, you big meanie!” Andromeda squeezed Anti-Mabel’s stomach, trapping the other girl. She dragged the limp body towards the generator that Candy and McGucket had setup. It was wired to one of the old pieces of equipment left to gather dust.

Anti-Mabel regained enough composure to fight back. Though her arms were pinned, she was able to kick out at Andromeda, hitting her square in the fluffy sweater. The clone let her go, but Anti-Mabel could tell that was what she’d wanted to do anyway. She’d been positioned somewhere for the plan.

She whirled round behind her, where an upright tube lit up. It was wired up to the portable generator. A trap, ready and waiting for her to sealed into. She wasn’t about to go down easily. Andromeda was strong, but not invincible.

She readied herself to fight… then felt the energy drain from her as the Black Hole appeared out of nowhere, shimmering into visibility. The armoured assassin didn’t say a word as she advanced.

Anti-Mabel panicked and lashed out. “No, stay away!” Her knife swings were manic and went wide of the target. She was too focused on Wendy to notice her feet placement and tripped over the lip of the tube.

Stunned, she realised too late what was happening as the door swung shut in her face. She pounded against the glass, but there was nothing she could do. Pressing her face against the glass, she saw the blank mask of the Black Hole right in front of her. The wearer slipped the helmet off.

That precise second, as the cryo-tube activated and froze Anti-Mabel in perpetual shock, was exactly when she realised she’d been played for a fool. When she saw Candy’s face under the mask and knew that Wendy was still inside her mind. As the ice crept over her body, stillness was all that followed. The feeling of betrayal and shame would remain as her last thought, frozen for an eternity.

* * *

As the confusion in Anti-Mabel’s mind had grown, so too had the battlefield in the dreamscape become a chaotic mess. All her fear of Wendy, the shame of being tricked, it all upset the landscape of her thoughts.

So, as Wendy, Grenda, and Eli battled furiously against Bill Cipher, the world around them began to fracture. What had first been a nightmarish carnival rendered just as Wendy remembered from Weirdmageddon, became little more than a flaming hellscape of burning. Bill’s influence was stronger than Mabel’s doubt, so his reality was dominant now.

The three travellers tried to focus their minds and create a pure barrier against Bill’s illusions, but the demon was so very strong. It was a constant struggle to keep up the defences. Just as they were starting to fall, as Cipher’s powers crept through to control them once again, a change swept across the dreamscape.

A vast blizzard blew in from the north, covering the land with snow in moments. A glacier of solid ice started moving towards them, threatening to crush anything below. “Oh look, brain freeze!” Bill oversaw what was going on. He knew what this meant.

Wendy called out beneath their tenuous barrier. “Take that, you useless geometric monster! Your ally in the real world is taking a permanent nap!”

“So my little flesh-puppet got tricked. Big whoop! You’ve still got me to contend with. Unlike you humans I don’t go down so easily! I’m practically immortal baby!”

Wendy grinned, and Cipher almost seemed to start sweating, at least if he’d actually possessed sweat glands. “Ooh, big mistake, Bill. Cause you see, we’ve all had experience dealing with that sort of thing recently. ‘_Practically_’ immortal gives me a lot of wiggle room.”

Swirling mist flowed from Wendy’s hand. She conjured a stubby grey gun, with two metal prongs sticking out the front. It was a replica of Mason’s Magnet gun, with one small difference. Stuck to the side of the gun was a post-it note saying ‘Bill Cipher Destruction Gun’.

Wendy shrugged at Grenda and Eli’s confusion. “Hey, I figured my armour’s weakness was this gun. Why not use it against Cipher. You know, symbolically. That’s what this whole plane is about.”

“That’s your big plan? A sticky note and a dinky little toy gun?! Ahaha! Excuse my aching sides will you,” he said dryly.

“It’s just an idea. Not a very well thought out one. But ideas have power, especially when you believe in them.” She pulled the trigger, aiming the fluxing blue magnetic energy right at Bill’s round eye.

“Ah, that stings!” He clutched at his pupil and writhed about, but Wendy kept the aim true.

She got into a cross-legged sitting position. “Eli, with me,” she called. Trying to ignore the icy chill of their surroundings and the fearsome presence of Cipher, he sat beside and breathed in and out gently.

Grenda watched open-mouthed as a sphere of shifting energy formed around the two Open Eye members. The force of the magnet gun’s beam began to intensify, causing Bill to call out in a shrill scream.

Wendy and Eli’s conviction was enough to make the inexplicable weapon work. Now that Eli had faced his guilt with trying to steal the portal and Wendy had accepted the mistakes of her past they were focused, clear. She wasn’t sure if the belief in their ideology, that seemed to be more powerful than anything else, was a particularly good thing. It had motivated them both to deceive and hurt those closest to them.

Right now she wasn’t about to wade in and mention any of that. Right now she just had to watch and hope that they could stop Cipher. His massive yellow form was starting to fade away at the edges. They were doing it. They were purging him right out of Anti-Mabel’s mind through the sheer power of their concentration.

“No! You can’t destroy me! I’m unstoppable, all-powerful! I can make you rich, I can give you anything you want! Your stupid Society’s goal, I can make it happen! Please! Nyargh!” He changed colour and shape several times as if trying to weasel out of the dreamscape. Finally he shouted a guttural chant as his final words. “Nruter yam I taht rewop tneicna eht ekovni i! Nrub ot emoc sah emit ym! S-O-R-O-B-O-R-U-O!”

In a bright flash he disappeared. The world was still, an icy plain of tranquillity once more. Bill Cipher was gone for good.

* * *

As another beautiful sunny day dawned over Gravity Falls, Candy and McGucket stood in the small glade of trees where Bill Cipher’s statue rested half-buried. With peace restored to this dimension, Candy looked over the statue and smiled contentedly. “This incarnation of Bill Cipher should be defeated permanently for you now. Even if he survived Wendy’s attack, he’ll be too weak to maintain any kind of form. He has no host to return to, no deals to make. Your world is safe.”

“You have my gratitude and that of all my staff, Miss Chiu. It’s been an honour working beside your team. Though I will be glad of some peace and quiet once you depart.”

“Ha, yes, we can be quite a handful. It could have taken me days to do all the relevant calculations, especially since Wendy and Quattro had so little data to go on. But thanks to your additional tech I’ve got us all synced up and ready to move on through the multiverse as a group. Thanks again for the gravity nullifiers as well. I can’t wait to show the tech to Mabel – our version I mean. She loves that sort of thing.”

“And yet…” McGucket stared at Candy, who was focused intently on the triangular statue. “You seem unsatisfied.”

“It’s nothing. I’m just enjoying the quiet sounds of nature.”

McGucket gave a sharp laugh. “Come now Candy, we’re both scientists. I know you’d rather be hunched over research in a lab than out here in the mud.”

She sighed and leant on a nearby tree trunk. She could see the others near edge of the institute in the clearing. They were joking around together, glad to be reunited and ready to move on. “I’ve been concerned about myself. About my leadership of the group.” McGucket quietly gestured for her to go on. “Before this Mabel and Cipher incident I was sure of myself. I was the architect of our portal. I was the smartest in the group. Eli tried to challenge me, but I was confident of my abilities.

“Now you’re not so sure?”

“I wasn’t much of a leader to them Fiddleford. They all worked together to foil our enemies’ plans. I didn’t do much. Even Andromeda took more charge than me. Had I not listened to Wendy we would have left this problem to spread. Some leader I was.”

McGucket looked from her to the clearing and pointed out at the group. “Did you let them down, Candy? I don’t think so. Look at them, they’re all safe and happy. Your role doesn’t have to be the boss all the time. Not everyone is suited for the pressures of that kind of responsibility. Look at me for instance, I mostly take a backseat when Stanford is around.”

“I suppose you’re right. This experience has certainly been humbling, I will say. At least I got a chance to hear one last piece of inspirational advice from you. Thank you Fiddleford. For everything.”

Despite her usually cold demeanour, she hugged the young scientist before starting to make a move back to the others. “Ahem, we’ll be on our way now then.”

McGucket gave her a last nod. “I look forward to hopefully someday meeting your counterpart here in our dimension. Good luck on your quest through the multiverse. I hope you find your other friends as well.”

Candy thought of Bokamoso, of Pacifica and the twins. Who knew where they could have ended up. For now though, she had a team beside her that could face any challenge. “I’m sure we will find them again… somewhere, out there in the multiverse…”

* * *

“Ah, don’t you just love that musty cave smell Fiddleford.”

“If you say so, Stanford.”

The two scientists passed through the security room into the main cavern. They had some small clean-up to do after the recent events.

Ford led the party of guards towards the cryo-tubes. “A shame I missed out on meeting our visitors. Sounds like you had quite a time of it without me.”

“Trouble does always seem to flourish when you’re not around.”

“At least the mud constructs of Dimension 7-Alpha no longer pose a threat. In fact their leader was quite hospitable. Though I’ll be scrubbing dirt out of my pores for a month. So, this is our fugitive?””

He wiped the condensation of the glass tube. Anti-Mabel’s shocked face was still visible through the icy mists. A red light came on inside as McGucket started the defrosting procedure.

“She’s trouble alright. In league with the Cipher, and she talked about a lot of other misdemeanours on her travels.”

“Once she’s thawed out we can assess the extent of her crimes and her judged at an interdimensional court of law. I know a good lawyer on Heffulon VI who can-“

Ford was interrupted as the cryo-tube swung open. Anti-Mabel was writhing around and muttering oddly, almost like an animalistic grunting. Before the two scientists’ eyes her body flexed and changed, morphing into a fleshy pink mass.

“Shifty?!” Ford cried out. It took three of the guards to restrain the wayward shapeshifter and manhandle him back into the nearby cage. 

McGucket noticed a piece of paper taped to the back of the tube. “’See you round, suckers! – A-M.’ Blast it, she’s gone!” He scrunched up the paper into a ball and cast it aside. “And we thought we were the ones who’d tricked her.”

“Wait, Fiddleford, she can’t have done this herself. She must have had outside help to liberate herself from the tube. Someone arranged this jailbreak. Your multiverse travelling friends said they had enemies, correct?” McGucket solemnly nodded. “Then perhaps they're in more danger than they think.”


	34. The Healer

All Pacifica could see was burning. All across Gravity Falls and even up into the sky. The world was on fire. And above it all, the cackling triangle that had done it. She was lost, stumbling alone in the woods, hoping to stay unseen. Her clothes were torn from running through the thick foliage to get away.

Her parents were gone, taken by those bat creatures. She could never forget what had been done to her father’s face either. All her life she’d remain haunted by that jumbled assortment of body parts juggling for space on his head. What she wouldn’t give to see the twins again.

Like a cool glass of water in a drought, she finally saw some semblance of a haven from the calamity. Still standing proudly in the middle of a clearing was that crummy Mystery Shack, untouched by fire or chaos. She ran full pelt towards the offer of safety

Then the world blew up. Totally and entirely, everything in existence burnt away, leaving not even the slightest trace that it was ever there. A complete nothingness followed, an aching void telling her that this was it. The end.

It was then that Pacifica knew this was wrong. She wasn’t twelve years old, Bill Cipher was defeated, and most importantly she wasn’t scared anymore. There was darkness out there in the universe, yes. But she’d faced it before and shown it who was in charge. And there was also great beauty out there also, though she’d have to be pushed to ever admit it out loud in such words.

Being lost and alone was something else entirely though. Despite the destruction of everything she’d just lived through, she wasn’t back in her waking mind. This was one of her dreams.

The vision shifted. Outwardly it was similar to before, a burning world ruled over by Cipher. This time was different though. It wasn’t Earth that was being destroyed. This was his home dimension. There was blood and fire raining down, tearing the skin of the world to shreds. Anyone he’d once called family died in those fires.

Why was she seeing this, what was the connection? Cipher was long dead. But she’d seen the burning so many times in her dreams, worlds aflame followed by that chilling silence. It had to be a clue, a link to something with their enemies, some sign of their plans.

Now the burning stretched out from Cipher’s world, to Earth, and beyond, taking everything she’d seen in the last few weeks of travelling and wiping it away. Deep explosions sounded nearby, like the herald of some great beast stomping along a plain.

She tried to push forward and escape, trudging through churned up mud and puddles of dirty water that stained her boots. There were bodies lying around her, still and unmoving in the dirt. In the distance she could make out an orange glow over the foggy horizon. More flames of war no doubt.

Gunfire whizzed past her nearby. She could hear shouting and people running through the dark mist. She covered her ears. Mud and bodies flew through the air all around her. The repetitive thump-thump of artillery shells shook the land. In all the chaos she tripped in the mud, falling into a shallow trench.

She realised that this wasn’t a dream anymore, that she’d arrived in a place that was very real and very deadly. Right then the panic hit her, and she tried to run for her life. And right then she stepped carelessly onto a landmine and was ripped apart.

* * *

Some hours later, with the fires of battle quenched, the hover-skimmer surveyed the carnage of the latest push. “More unsalvageables,” one of the two scouts commented. “Keep us moving.” She pointed to a nearby natural ridge. “We’ll stop there.”

Her young assistant dispassionately scanned the environment as they went. He was mildly surprised when he picked up a positive life sign on the control panel. “Hold up commander. There’s a trace sign over here. Under this pile of… I think they’re bodies.”

They stopped the skimmer and clomped down onto the mud. They were mindful of completing this survey quickly – The sounds of artillery fire were still audible in the far distance.

Hesitating for a moment, the assistant had to be pushed on by his commander. He grunted as he hefted what had once been a soldier’s torso out of the way. What was beneath made him gasp. Even though she was completely caked in the black mud, he could tell she wasn’t like the other soldiers.

“Commander, I think she’s an alien!”

“What the hell’s an off-worlder doing swept up in all this?” She shook her head. “Scoop her up.”

“But sir… the limbs. She’s in a terrible state, the barest of life signs-”

“Just gather what you can. The Great Healer is going to want to see this.”

* * *

When Pacifica awoke, she writhed around in pain and fear, still expecting to be back in that hellish trench at any moment. As her mind began to wake up properly, she realised that she was in a hospital bed.

Before she could process any more, she started hyperventilating. She remembered what had happened before she’d blacked out. She felt the gaping lack, had seen her arm… torn off. She reached with her other arm, furiously grabbing at whatever she could.

Then she felt it. Her arm, the one she’d felt blasted off in the explosion, had been reattached. That was impossible, surely? Not only had it been completely broken off her body, it had also been crushed to a pulp by the force of the blast. She pulled the covers of her bed away. Ignoring the hospital gown she was wearing, she checked over the rest of her body.

Pristine. Not a single cut or blemish. Even her hair, those messy golden locks that were always a nightmare to keep in check on these long journeys, was neatly straightened and combed. Back in the trench she’d felt an explosion right in her face. It had been powerful enough to rip limbs off, to tear flesh. She’d felt the massive internal damage as well. Not to mention all the blood. She couldn’t have come back from that kind of injury.

She tentatively tried to move the fingers of her new limb, teaching herself anew how to send impulses through her nerves. She studied the arm. Not only was it perfectly functional, with no lingering pain or limited use from the damage, it had also miraculously been cleared of all her scars.

All those permanent reminders of adventures she’d gone on in the past, simply erased off her skin like chalk off a board. She ran her other hand over the skin. It was soft, smooth like a baby’s. She tried and failed to remember anything after the immediacy of the blast but came up blank. She didn’t want to think about the pain, so turned to her current surroundings.

She sat upright in the bed. Just like Mason always taught her, be aware of what’s around you, take in everything, no matter how minor. You could never be sure what would turn out to be important. The room she was lying in was a sterile white medical bay, with what looked like more advanced equipment than any hospital back on Earth but matching the same basic template.

Beside her bed was a small desk. Laid out on it were her personal effects. Her silver pendant rested curled up on the pink and gold cover of the Llama journal. Beside it was her hexagonal backpack and, most importantly, the precious hopper disc, containing not only her survival suit but also any chance of finding the twins again.

Another wave of panic hit her. If she’d been hurt – nay, killed by any normal standards – then they might be in just as much danger. She didn’t want to dwell on how bad it could get. This was the danger of their mission. Forging ahead into random worlds with no idea what they’d encounter. It had taken her less than a minute to end up like this.

At least she seemed fine now. There weren’t even any IV lines or detectors wired up to monitor her vitals. It was as if she’d been completely healed of any physical damage. “If only it could heal all my mental hangups too,” she chuckled to herself. “Could save a fortune in therapy bills once this whole escapade is over.” 

“We guarantee that no mental tampering has taken place.”

“Who’s there?!” she called out. The voice, which had sounded confident and relaxing, must have come from a concealed speaker.

The white room dimmed suddenly, leaving her in near pitch darkness. A horizontal beam of green light came on and panned down her body. There was a sound like an old computer, whirring and clicking as it processed what was being scanned.

As abruptly as it had come on, the scanner beam switched off and the room lit up again. Squinting against the light, Pacifica called out again. “Who are you? What’s going on?” The room was as still and empty as before. No doctors or nurses to be seen. “Hello, can you hear me? My name is-“

“I know what your name is,” the mystery voice replied. “The book found on your person contained all relevant personal data. Pacifica Elise Pines, born May 6th 1999 (local calendar). Current career is as an architect, you’re an 8 times mini-golf championship winner, and your favourite colour is hot pink.”

“And that information is _private_, thank you very much.” Though she was outwardly ticked off by the voice, she was trying to gauge its intentions. There was an air of artificiality to it, like the speech was synthesised. So she was probably dealing with an AI. “Could I get some answers? What’s going on here? I’d rather talk to someone in person if that’s possible.”

From the white panels of the wall beside her, which had been smooth a moment before, a display screen slid out. It hovered over to her, floating in the air. She peered at the blue screen, the hue reminding her uncomfortably of the portal’s glow, that same cold light.

A series of lines meant to approximate a face faded slickly onto the screen. A single straight line represented the mouth, while there were two concentric circles for eyes. One of the eyes had a cross through it though. Another unsettling reminder, it was too much like the symbol of the Blind Eye for her liking.

“I see you are discomforted by my appearance. Do not be alarmed Mrs Pines, I mean you no harm.”

“Alright, pixel face, you know who I am. Care to introduce yourself?”

“Certainly.” The mouth line on the screen briefly flickered upwards into what was meant to be a genial smile but looked more to Pacifica like a menacing grin. “You are honoured to be in the presence of the Great Healer of the Seven Systems. I provide the finest care and healing known in this corner of reality.”

“So, you’re like a space doctor? Guess I should count my blessings you were around.” She studied the motionless face on the screen, unable to read any emotion. There was something about the dry nature of hospitals that was always off-putting. The Doctors too clinical and focused on the job, the rooms too clean and bland. This face was even worse at conveying any kind of relaxing air. “What exactly are you then, Great Healer? Is there someone running this place, like a head doctor or manager?”

The Healer laughed. At least, that was what Pacifica _guessed_ the electric whirr was meant to be.

“You do not understand. I _am_ the Healer. This place, the voice you hear, the treatment provided to you. It is all an extension of myself.” Pacifica regarded the screen cautiously, backing away in the bed. “I can see I am making you uneasy. In truth, I do not know my own origins. I was not _built_, not by any committee or group. I simply came into being, adrift in the multiverse. A full consciousness. Separate from any body. Through force of will I coalesced, manifesting in systems and subroutines. Eventually, I became influential enough to construct the medical palace you find yourself in. This is my body now, a travelling hospital that goes from world to world.”

“I think I get it,” Pacifica said hesitantly. “So you have no idea where you came from, how you ended up like this?” The Healer’s face frowned slightly, giving Pacifica all she needed to know about that. This was one of those little mysteries she’d likely never get an answer for. Sometimes that was life, especially in a place as vast and unknowable as the multiverse. Instead she turned to something the Healer could answer. “You healed my body? I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong. Just curious. Why did you do that for me, I’m not even from here.”

The screen floated away from her, turning as if to stare into space. “I am currently engaged in a critical study of this planet’s biosphere. You were lucky to be recovered from the plains of Ennos by my followers, those who wish to aid my efforts. All injuries have been corrected and tissue damage repaired. You are indeed a fascinating subject. Tell me, how did you come to be on this world?”

“I was travelling, kinda ended up here by mistake. Just supposed to be passing through. You really fixed me though? I mean, I thought I was a goner.”

The screen turned back to her and smiled that fake smile. “I can perform almost any operation here. Your body was heavily damaged, yes. But at an atomic level I could piece anyone back together. I normally do not bother, but with as rare a specimen as you…” He halted until Pacifica gestured for him to continue. “I’m sorry, there is something familiar about your species I do not fully understand. In any case, I implemented a full bodily maintenance procedure. All damage repaired, all blemishes cleared. Any internal errors likely to cause further issues were corrected. You are 100% healed.”

“Internal issues…” Pacifica’s hand unconsciously drifted to her lower stomach at hearing those words. She’d been completely healed. Surely that couldn’t mean… The Healer had fixed what had been broken in the explosion, but had he gone further? Had he done the impossible? 

Another thought tugged at her mind though. She removed her hand and dropped the thought. If the Healer had truly done what he’d said, she didn’t want to know. No point getting invested in things she couldn’t change. But there was something she needed to address right now. "You haven't, like, extended my lifespan or something like that?"

"No. Why would I? You have simply been reset to the basic template of your species. What is your concern?"

She reached out and picked up her pendant, watching it spin in a slow circle. "Lately I've been working against a group... they like to see death as an absolute to fear... I don't want to be made into that. Look, it’s not important. I have something else to ask you. I have friends, people who travelled with me. They might still be out there, and… wait. What's that smell?" She'd detected a faint aroma like rotten eggs wafting in. It completely overwhelmed the scent of antiseptic.

“Ah, that,” the screen stated bluntly. “Fresh arrivals.”

At the end of her bed there was a corridor passing parallel. It likely led to other rooms of the hospital. Now floating across the corridor in a silent parade, three beds drifted over. She leant over to look closer but regretted it immediately. 

On each of the beds she saw twisted brown remains, charred beyond all recognition. The mangled remnants, covered in mud and inelegantly laid out, couldn’t have contrasted more with the clinical cleanness of the hospital. She turned away, afraid she'd vomit from the mere sight of all the gore. She failed to get the image out of her mind, as the overwhelming stench of burnt flesh became too much to bear.

A glass window she hadn't been aware of before tinted opaque, so her view of the silent procession and the rest of the ward was mercifully cut off.

"My apologies, I should have given warning. You shouldn't have had to see that."

"What was that!? Those bodies... that was one of the most horrible things I've ever seen."

"Those retrieved are not all able to be healed. I can only do so much." From a being that had revived her from a set of exploded limbs that was saying something. "Still, their sacrifice was not in vain. Dissection of the remains may yield vital studies of the effectiveness of the new weapons."

“_Dissection?! Weapons?!_ What is going on here!? I saw fighting, it was a warzone out there.” She’d figured out that much in her few seconds before the blast. The violence she’d been caught up in was way beyond a simple skirmish.

When the voice replied it was much less assured than before. “Perhaps you have misunderstood my mission.” In fact, Pacifica would even go so far as to describe the voice as squirming, trying to find a way to justify itself. “I am a healer, yes. But I am here on this world not merely to fix the broken bodies brought to me or tend to the sick. I am here for research. The war provides such a variety of medical conditions. How else am I to know this species if not through a full assessment of their weaknesses?”

Pacifica felt a chill run down her spine. She was suddenly very uneasy around this godlike machine. “You don’t care about the people fighting at all? You don’t care about _me_? What are we to you, just lab rats to be tested?”

“This is my purpose. To study. That is one thing I do remember of my origins. In a past life I searched, I hunted, and I catalogued many creatures at the bounds of science. In my new form I continue that tradition. To gather and sample all beings in the cosmos. That is the only way to truly attain knowledge. You were only selected to be healed because you were a unique specimen. The war is simply a means to that same end. A word in the right ear here, a politician swayed there, and it was easy enough to manufacture a conflict.”

“_You_ started the war?!” Pacifica spluttered indignantly. “All so you could have more patients?! That’s barbaric.”

“That’s life. Behold.”

The floor of her room became transparent, revealing the dark muddy plain below. They were moving slowly, floating safely above the battles. She was afraid to step off the bed despite knowing it was just another trick like the opaque screen that blocked the door to her room. Peering over the edge, she saw that trenches ran across the landscape like scars. A central area between the lines crisscrossing below was left barren and empty. No man’s land.

“The two sides already had their grievances. It only took me to shift the balance to the right point where a conflict arose. Now I am provided all the bodies I could ever need for me research. Once I have completed my work I shall depart this world and move on to another.”

Appalled by the callous disregard for the people struggling below her, Pacifica wanted to argue with the AI. She wanted to make him feel a shred of empathy for the soldiers, to know what he’d done. She’d once felt the same lack. There had been a time when she too cared nothing for anyone but herself.

But she didn’t have the energy to engage. This wasn’t her world or her fight. It wasn’t like she could do anything to change the Healer’s mind. She gathered her objects together, slipping on her hopper and backpack, then stood up on the glass floor. “I’d like to get out of this place please. I have to find my friends.”

“I know. We are already en route to their location.”

Surprised, Pacifica tapped her hopper. True to his word, displayed on the map screen were two distant signals. They were heading towards the twins. That was some small positive at least.

“Good. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to be left alone for the duration of the trip. I’ve had just about as much as I can take from listening to you.” 

Without another word the screen switched off and slid back into the wall. Pacifica looked down again at the rapidly disappearing battlefield, and then around at the hospital, feeling glad to soon be as far away as possible from this morbid place.


	35. The Aliens

Argon Meltrozz had bitten off more than he could chew. In his long career as a private detective he’d never expected to be brought down by such a petty case. Yet, as he stumbled through the rain-streaked back alleys of the city, he knew it was all over.

He doubled over, collapsing behind a dumpster. He clutched a hand to his gut, where the blood was still relentlessly flowing. Nothing would stop it now. He was a goner. The one refuge in his thoughts was that his pursuer had lost him in the warren of passageways. He wasn’t far from the slums and the abandoned sector now.

Ironic though, despite the war raging on the other side of the planet, he’d ended up dying here, as far from the combat as one could get. There wasn’t much left to do beside bleed out on the side of the pavement, a gutted fish fading away. The case was hopeless, no-one could solve it now.

And then, in his last moments, Meltrozz saw a glimmer of hope. A wind blew through the alley, scattering the garbage lying in the street. Then a flash, bright enough to reveal his hideaway behind the dumpster, erupted in front of him. Against all odds, standing in the alley which had been empty moments before were two people, gawking like they didn’t have a care in the world.

“Oh no, not again! It’s another space city, boring! Dipper, why can’t we get any cool worlds, like ones where the sky is made of water, or that dimension we passed through with the talking cactuses?

“Again with the complaining? Hey, at least this place is relatively safe. All the normal laws of physics seem to apply, that’s good enough for me.”

“Pfft, you would say that.”

Meltrozz used what little energy he had left to get to his feet and inch towards the new arrivals. With their skin, much paler than his own bright pink, and the tufts of fur growing on their heads, they could only be off-worlders. They were now his only chance.

He tripped out of where he’d been hidden, unable to stay upright for long. The two aliens noticed him and jumped back in surprise. “Please… help me.” He strangled out those few words, hoping it would convince them. The male stayed back, pensive, but the female rushed to his side and propped him up.

“Dipper, this guy’s hurt!” She checked his wound and sadly turned to her comrade. “It’s bad, really bad. There’s not much I can do.”

Meltrozz tried to get her attention and reached into his trenchcoat. “You must… must find the killer… I’m not the first.”

“Rest, you don’t need to strain yourself.”

“Take it!” he implored, pushing the folder of his investigations into her hands. It was nearly the end. He started breathing erratically. The alien found his hand and gripped it tight. In his last moments he smiled, appreciating the small hint of compassion.

“Who did this? Please, you need to tell us.” The male was pushy, wanting answers. He could sympathise with that attitude, that hunger to get to the bottom of a case. But there wasn’t any more he could do.

Laying back, Argon Meltrozz died the way he’d lived, alone in a seedy back alley. He muttered his last words, hoping beyond hope that these strangers could somehow avenge him from beyond the grave. “Another round…”

Then his head fell back. The female alien solemnly closed his eyes, then looked at the precious file she’d been entrusted with. Before she could read it closer, the sound of police sirens echoed from nearby.

“Mabel, let’s go.” Without arguing, the two of them ran before anyone else arrived, leaving Meltrozz’s body behind in the soaked alley.

* * *

“You know, I thought out in space people would be… nobler. Kinder. I thought people would come together in harmony, away from all the crummy problems on Earth. Guess I was being naïve.”

Mabel and Mason had found a small awning in another one of the winding back alleys to take shelter under. Now, as the sun rose over the alien city and the rain slowed to a gentle patter, they were trying to decide what to do next.

Mabel still had the folder she’d been thrust cradled in her hands. She’d flicked through it to see what the contents were about. Mostly case files of the deceased, a set of profiles of various different murders that had taken place in the last month. The faces staring up at her from each file were all from different species, a colourful menagerie of the dead.

“Try not to worry about it too much, Mabel.” Mason kicked out at an old can, sending it skittering away. “Space is just like anywhere it seems: Filled with people, and people can be evil or stupid and there’s no point getting hung up on it. We still need to find Pacifica after all.”

Mabel slid the files back into the folder and tried not to picture the dying detective’s final moments again. “I was sure we’d have bumped into her by now. But we haven’t seen _anyone_. It’s like this part of town is deserted.”

“I’ll try the scanner. She can’t have landed too far away.” He tapped the screen on the wrist of his suit, bringing up the map display showing his and Mabel’s traces practically on top of each other. He glanced around for Pacifica’s signal but couldn’t see it. He started zooming out the projection, widening the search area. The map zoomed out distressingly far. He finally felt a wave of relief when the purple marker appeared at last. He frowned at the distance indicator though. “What!? Well, good news is she’s on this planet. Bad news is she’s on a different hemisphere!”

“What, that’s so far away!”

“Must have been a bumpy transfer through the vortex.” He watched the purple trace for a moment, wondering just what kind of situation Pacifica was in. “There’s some movement. She’s coming towards us, slowly. Looks like it’ll take her a few hours or maybe even days.”

“She probably wouldn’t like this crummy alley anyway. Too lower class for her majesty,” Mabel said in a posh British accent. She wasn’t exaggerating about the alleyway either: There was trash strewn about everywhere. Old empty bottles, torn newspapers, and piles of what she hoped was merely rotten food. “A few hours, you said?” She looked down at the folder again, opening it up.

“No, no no! Put that away. We’re not getting wrapped up in some outer space crime drama.”

“But Dippppppeeeeeerrrrr!” she said, putting on her neediest tone of voice. “It’s only right, that guy trusted us to solve the case! We’ve gotta bring this killer to justice! Can’t you see it, Mabel Pines, PI!”

Mason rolled his eyes and groaned. “No. We don’t know anything about this planet. We shouldn’t get involved in things we don’t fully understand. Heaven knows we might just get ourselves arrested.”

“Come on bro, it’ll be like old times, solving a classic mystery! One of the first things we did after finding Journal 3 was solving a murder.”

“Yeah, of a _wax statue_! This isn’t comparable!”

“Please, Dipper? It’s not like we’ve got anything better to do.”

He was about to say they should just sit tight and wait for Pacifica, then move on, that it wasn’t their problem. Then he saw Mabel’s expression. He’d been expecting something stern, an attempt to guilt him into sticking around. Instead it was a look of sadness. Like they had a moral imperative to solve this injustice.

Sighing heavily, he realised just how much he’d been won over by Mabel in the last few months. “Fine. We’ll stay.”

“Yay! Thank you thank you thank you!” She wrapped her brother in a hug then bounded off down the alley.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

She pivoted and walked backwards away from him. “We’ve gotta start somewhere, and that means finding some people to tell us what this world is like. Basic ground level info, that sort of thing. Come on slowpoke!”

Wondering what he’d gotten himself into, Mason got up and followed his excited sister. Passing through more empty alleyways, there was a profound silence as they searched for some sign of other life. Eventually, as they turned a corner they started to hear a hubbub of sounds, the chatter of alien dialects, the hum of spaceship engines, the clatter of feet.

The alley they were in gradually opened up until they were in a massive market square. Finally there were people around, bustling to and fro and haggling at dozens of stalls for food or wares. Mason feared they’d stand out at first, but quickly noticed there were multiple types of alien species making their way through the crowd. They could blend in well enough.

There was an abundance of one type of alien in particular, a species Mason assumed must be the natives of this planet. They were the same kind as the detective who’d got them into whatever mess they were heading for, with tall, gangly bodies and bright pink skin. The strangest feature was their oddly large eyes, round and black, with no pupils he could make out.

While Mason studied the denizens of the market, making mental notes to later write down in his journal, Mabel was already casually at home. She wandered about, sampling the delicacies on display and moving among the crowd with ease.

Letting his sister take the lead and get lost in the bustle of people, Mason found a quiet spot to rest and breathe, out of the thronging mass. He looked up, seeing a few spaceships criss-crossing high above. A more advanced planet than Earth then, for sure. The sun above blazed down, and he saw that beyond the city limits there was a vast desert of purple sand.

Moving his gaze downwards, he was surprised by the scale of some of the distant landmarks within the city itself. Leaning against a massive outcropping of dark rock there were buildings perilously stacked on top of each other. It was like the city flowed out from that pinnacle at its centre, the buildings gradually decreasing in height the further they got from it. High above, atop the vast mountain, was a thick wall of metal, forming an unnatural caldera. It must be some kind of fortress or palace, he assumed.

He realised he’d been lost in thought for too long and tried searching for Mabel again. At least with the suit trackers she couldn’t get too lost. He was about to head back through the crowd when a pair of the pink locals in shiny armour rode past him. He fell back out of the way but watched them curiously as they passed, kicking up some of the purple sand that covered the unpaved street. The mounts they sat on were bipedal creatures, covered in down of bright plumage. Feathers of red and blue sparkled in the shimmering sunlight and he was captivated, watching them until they were a blur in the distant market.

Even now he was still amazed by the variety of life out in the multiverse. Grinning quite widely, he turned to find his sister only to bump straight into a small child of 7 or 8 years old. She was a pink-skinned local girl, who jumped back from him in surprise, then darted off . “Watch where you’re going, kid,” he shouted after her, shaking his head. She had already disappeared back into the crowd. As first impressions on the locals went it wasn’t a glowing success on his part.

* * *

He found Mabel eating a large red fruit and leaning against some kind of decorative pillar at the centre of the square. It seemed like a common gathering place, with lots of groups sat around talking together.

Mabel took another sloppy bite, getting food all around her mouth. Over mouthfuls of the fruit she greeted him. ”Dipper, you’ve gotta try this! It’s so juicy.” 

She offered him a taste, but he declined. Mabel’s noisy chewing was enough to put him off. “I’ve been trying to get a sense of this place by observing the crowd and the surroundings. I think that mountain over there is some kind of ‘upper district’ perhaps, or maybe a fortress.”

“Anything else?” she asked, swallowing and discarding the rest of the fruit to focus entirely on the conversation

“Um, the pink beings are the locals, but there’s lots of alien visitors too. Probably a level 7 or 8 type civilisation I’m guessing. Space travel seems common, but they’ve still not completely branched out yet.”

“I see. Did you also know that this is the city of Morada, on the planet Tengosa?”

“Wait, how-“

“Or that there’s currently a brutal war going on across the globe?”

“How’d you find out all that?!”

“Because I talked to people, duh.” She rolled her eyes at her brother once again missing the obvious. “You learn a lot if you just ask, bro. Much easier than ‘observing’ your way through life.”

“Oh… right. But did you see those avian creatures pass through? They looked amazing.”

She snorted at him but gave a small smile. Sometimes not everything had to be doom and gloom. “I guess we should enjoy all this space stuff while it lasts. I mean, once we’re done and back home…”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Forget I said anything. I’ve been looking at the folder again and noticed something that stands out. All the people who were murdered were – you guessed it – Aliens!”

“By that you mean not local to Tengosa I take it? So, what’s the connection? This a bit of a hub if you haven’t noticed, there’s lots of aliens mingling around this place.”

“Look around, Dipper! There are alien merchants in the market, sure, but they have the smaller stalls, fewer customers and cheaper wares. The immigrants are treated worse here. It’s sad, just like back home they have the same problems.”

“You deduced all that in ten minutes?” He had to admit that such things had passed him by. He’d been too focused on the big picture or dazzled by exotic sights to notice the down to earth plight of what went on in the market. Though his sister’s view seemed pessimistic – a sharp turn from the naivety she’d expressed earlier – he couldn’t disagree with her conclusions. There was a noticeable divide here.

“Alright Mabel, you seem to have the right idea. Maybe there is a direct connection between the victims all being aliens. What do you suggest we do now then if you’re so sure?”

“We need more intel, plus I’m still kinda hungry. I know the perfect place we can kill two birds with one stone though! One of the merchants I talked to told me there’s a bar nearby we can try. I think it’ll be highly informative. Come on!”

She gripped his wrist and pulled him through the crowd to the edge of the market square. He sighed again and let her take the lead. She was really getting involved in solving the mystery here. He supposed it was similar to her activism back on Earth, trying to right wrongs and bring injustice to light.

The bar they arrived at, called Teltoc’s (which Mason presumed must be the name of the owner), was in a seedy little spot by the spaceport. The air around smelt of engine fuel and there was constant noise from ships coming and going. Mabel dramatically entered the bar, pushing aside the saloon-style double doors, but to Mason’s surprise nobody turned their head to look at them. Most of the faces of the people drinking and eating weren’t the pink locals, but instead a mishmash of visitors to Tengosa.

Removing her survival suit to feel more at home, Mabel placed herself down on a barstool and span around a few times, before addressing the Tengosan bartender. He was a man who looked like he’d seen all kinds of trouble in his establishment before and was used to strange newcomers. Mabel might just have been the strangest he’d yet had the pleasure of encountering. “A round of drinks please Teltoc! Also a large D’hoonibian spicy cheese disc, hold the pineapples.”

“You paying with credits or trade?” the surly barkeep asked, hands on hips. Mason reckoned that with all the disparate travellers passing through here there would be some difficulty with exchanging different currencies.

Mabel reached into her pack and placed some credit chips she’d picked up on Lottocron X down to pay for their food, then led her brother over to a more private booth so they could discuss matters.

“So tell me, why did we go all the way out here to visit this bar when there were places to eat all over that market square?”

“Cause it’s the alien bar! All the off-worlders come here, apparently. A good place to find a lead no doubt!”

“Trust you to always know where the best places to drink are. Still, not a bad idea to try this place. Let me have a look at these files for once.”

Mabel spread the documents out on the table so he could get an overview of the victim’s profiles. The first was of a bug-eyed insectoid and Mason started reading the typed notes. “Zegarin Pax, male, age 49, died about 3 weeks ago of a suspected drug overdose. Police ruled it as an accident, hmm.” The next one was thin, furry being, pictured carrying a spear. “Fluffftin Tuft, female, age 24, died 12 days ago… huh, suffocation. Says she had an allergic reaction and it closed up her breathing tube, nasty way to go.”

He squeamishly gestured for Mabel to read the next profile out loud. “Shin Shan and Shen Shon, ooh, twins. Oh, died by contracting space hyperflu off contaminated food stocks a week ago, not so cheery.”

While the bartender brought them their order they continued reading through the files. Each of the victims was, as Mabel had said, non-native to Tengosa. There was no obvious link between the aliens involved though; none of them knew each other, and what motive someone would have for targeting them was unclear.

While Mason chewed on the cheesy food his sister had ordered (and was glad to note that the bartender’s skills thankfully extended to preparing food for multiple different species), he read over each file again, combing them for more detail. “This isn’t adding up. None of these deaths sound like murders. We only know for sure that the detective guy was murdered, maybe he was killed for unrelated reasons.”

“No, there must be something else, he was so adamant before he died. This is important, I know it. If we can just figure it out. What about this one, a Greelix matron, died of infection from a cut off a rusty nail.”

“Wait, hold on a sec. That’s not the first of these deaths to be cause by an infection. Look, those twins did too. And that fur-beast, she got an allergic reaction.”

“So? That all sounds natural.”

“But what if it wasn’t? I mean, really, a rash of aliens dropping like flies by some freak infection? All of these could be coverups for something else. Something like poison! Even the overdose case, that could easily be some undetectable substance. Maybe that’s the link our detective noticed.”

“Now you’re getting it Dip! We can solve this together, I know it. By the time Paz arrives we’ll have it all wrapped up in a little bow.” She chugged down the last of her ale and started striding out of the bar.

Mason coughed into his fist, stopping her in her tracks. “Ahem, we still don’t have any leads, remember. We’ve got a possible means, but no suspects yet.”

“Oh, righto. We should ask around here, see if anyone knew the victims. Maybe the staff, some of them probably passed through here.”

“I’ll start making notes in here.” He reached into his backpack to pull out Journal 7. As he was about to open the book, something collided into him and it slipped from his hands. He whirled round to see that it was a young Tengosan who’d knocked into him. In fact, it was the same girl who he’d seen out in the market. “Hey, I know you…”

The girl took on a look of fear, then with unnatural speed bounded for the door. She also succeeded in scooping up Journal 7 as she went as well. It had been a calculated move, knock into him then run off with the goods, smash and grab.

Mason wasn’t about to let all his hard work, all the writing he’d done in the last year be stolen by some punk kid off the street. Leaving Mabel behind in the bar, he stormed out and shouted after the girl. “Come back here this instant!”

* * *

The little girl proved almost as adept at crowd-weaving as Mabel, leading Mason back through the market square in his desperate pursuit. The child was small but speedy, keeping a steady distance away. He almost lost her several times as he tried to push past people after her.

As he was led further and further from the crowded side of town, he wished he’d waited for Mabel. This didn’t look like a savoury place to be alone. The number of people rapidly thinned out, before it was just him and his quarry. They were near the district where they’d arrived the night before. Like then it seemed abandoned, all the buildings empty.

It was also a network of winding alleys. If he lost the thief here he’d never find her again. He turned around a corner but had to stop. A dead end. There were piles of trash lying about and old overturned dumpsters. He was sure he hadn’t lost his target. There was nowhere to go.

“Oh, darn. Lost her,” he called loudly. “Guess I’ll just have to head back.” He turned on the spot, then quickly sidled over to one of the dumpsters and crouched behind it. As he thought, a few second later he heard a rattle of junk being pushed out of the way.

He peeked over the dumpster and watched the girl look both ways. She smiled contentedly at losing her pursuer, then started heading out of the alley. As she passed, he jumped out from his hiding spot and grabbed her arm. “Gotcha!”

“Hey! Let me go!” A flurry of weak punches hit him in the stomach but weren’t enough to deter him. He’d seen how slippery this one could be, so made sure to have a tight grip so she didn’t run off again.

“I saw you take something of mine. Care to hand it back over?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, mister! I’m just an innocent little street kid, please have mercy.” There was a hint of genuine fear in the girl’s voice, so he relaxed his clutch on her a little.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble. That thing you stole from me, it’s just a book, not treasure or something you can fence off. It’s got no value to you, but it means a lot to me. So, please, can I have it back? Then perhaps I’ll forget about all this?”

He let the girl go and tensed up in case she chose to run again. The Tengosan eyed him curiously with those dark orbs her species had for eyes, then pulled the book out from behind her back.

Tentatively holding it out in front of herself, the girl offered it to him. Sensing some further deception, Mason snatched the book off her. The look of how much that utterly crushed the poor girl was enough to make him reconsider being so harsh. He coughed into his fist and puffed out his chest to try and salvage his dignity. “Well, that’s sorted then. Run along, young thing.” The girl just raised an eyebrow at him, then ran off down the street and around a corner. Mason shook his head. “Kids.” He took a look back down the alley, then turned to leave.

“I don’t meet many aliens like you.”

“Ah!” The girl had reappeared right in his face, hanging upside down from a nearby disused fire escape. She’d move so silently, without him even noticing. “What do you want? I thought we were done.”

The frowning alien crossed her upside-down arms. “My name is Merrise. What’s yours?”

Mason tried to walk past the girl, but she kept swinging to block him. “You’re a very annoying little kid, you know that?” Her penetrating gaze didn’t waver. It reminded him of Pacifica’s ironclad gazes, judging his very attitude. “I’m Mason Pines. Happy now, Merry?”

“_Merrise_!” the alien stressed. She still didn’t budge, and Mason started to wonder if she was hoping to steal something more from him.

“Uh, do you have a problem or something? Hello, kid?” He waved his hand in her pink face a few times, so she’d get the message. “What’s the matter, your parents never taught you not to bother folks just going about their day?”

“My parents are…” The girl slipped, and Mason tried to grab her but missed. She landed on her feet without his help; it had been a planned move. “I don’t have parents anymore.”

“Oooooh.” Mason rubbed his neck, the uncomfortableness ever rising. “Well don’t I feel like a jerk. But if you’re looking for handouts I don’t have anything. No money, get it? I only just arrived on this planet. Hopefully I’ll be gone soon enough.”

“No, just… you’re a strange person.” She put her hands behind her back and kicked her heels a few times, waiting for something to satisfy whatever stray curiosity was making her so interested in Mason.

“Strange? That’s rich.” Against his better judgement, he resigned himself to chatting with the little thief, finding an old wooden crate to sit on. “I suppose it’s true though. Mason Pines, mystery geek. That’s me.”

“What brings you to Tengosa, Mr Pines?” The child sat next to him. Was he supposed to entertain this urchin now, play storyteller to whatever random kid asked?

“I’m here for business, not pleasure, if that’s what you mean. Me and my group, we’re kinda visiting lots of places. What’s it to you? Tell me, Merrise, why do you find me so fascinating?”

She shrugged. “Most aliens I try to steal from end up cursing me or trying to hit me. You’re the first who’s tried talking.”

For the first time Mason’s opinion of the girl started to soften. He noticed how ragged her clothes were, dirty, with obvious patches. She wasn’t even wearing shoes. Some sense of pity and guilt overcame his urge to return to his sister.

“So, what happened to your parents? If you don’t mind talking about it- I mean, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Merrise gave a small giggle. “You’re not very good at talking to people, are you?” Then her smile vanished as she brought up the old memories. “My mom got called up to the front about a year ago.”

“That’s for this whole war business right?” The girl eagerly nodded. “So who are you fighting against? I presume it’s – what, some kind of alien invasion, repelling them off?”

“No, the enemy aren’t alien. They’re _Tengosan_, silly.”

Mason was shocked by that revelation. “Your people still fight among themselves, even after developing spaceflight?! I thought you’d all, like, band together as a common people. Forget petty nations and all that, unite as a planet.”

Merrise snorted loudly. “Yeah right. I don’t know why we fight. It’s all there is, they fight against us, we fight back.“

Now who was the naïve one, he ruefully thought. Mabel would probably taunt him for having such a simple view of progress, that being advanced technologically would magically cure all ills on a world. Another mark against the Society of the Open Eye’s philosophy, he supposed.

“It’s alright though. They told us Mama got a commendation for defending her trench longer than anyone else before it was overrun.”

Taken aback by how matter-of-factly she treated the matter, he gestured for her to go on. “And your dad?”

“Bombing raid, about 6 months ago. Took out half the block.”

“Oh.” He was at a loss for words. This wasn’t his fight, wasn’t his world. But the simple truths of the conflict were starting to make him feel frustrated. Was this how his sister used to feel when she saw this kind of injustice? A desire to do something, to make things better, tempered by the rational thought that one person couldn’t make a difference?

He stood up, about ready to leave. “Look, kid, I hope this talk did you some good, but I have to get back to my sister.” He didn’t like the disappointed reaction that elicited on Merrise’s face. But it was time to get back to work and forget about random street kids asking questions.

The skittering of a bottle down the alley made his stop. There were people heading his way down the backstreets. Multiple people.

Behind him Merrise was on her feet and running for cover already. He crept round the side of the dumpster she’d crouched behind. Seeing her curled up in a ball, desperately trying to stay hidden made his insides churn in an unusual way. He knelt down with her, out of sight but able to see the passers-by.

It was a group that looked like a street gang, wearing colourful tattoo-like markings and strutting about like they owned the place. He also noted they were all off-worlders: A species he didn’t recognise, burly and scaly, like large musclebound amphibians. He wondered what all the fuss was about as they moved on without stopping.

He stepped back out into the open, scratching his head and watching the gang walk off. “You can come out now kid. I guess.” She emerged, but was shaking like a leaf, far from the cocky girl who seemed oddly unaffected by even her parent’s passing. “What’s wrong? I doubt they were gonna hurt a kid. Look at me, I can be pretty cowardly sometimes if I’m honest, but it’s fine.” 

“Aliens are scary.” She said the words not as the confident thief, but as a scared little child. Something about it, about the pure dislike for the unlike caused an odd revulsion inside Mason.

He thought for a moment, then kneeled down so he was face to face with the strange kid who’d attached herself to his side for some reason he couldn’t fathom. “Well, I’m an alien.” He held out his palm. “Are you scared of me?” Tentatively, she reciprocated with her own palm, matching up with his. “See, I’m a human. We’re not all that different to you Tengosans.”

That raised a smile from Merrise “Ok. I don’t think you’re bad.”

“Now try telling my Father-in-law that, heh.” As they held their palms together in the symbolic gesture, he nevertheless noticed a small oddity. Her hand was a lot smaller than his, but they didn’t quite match up right. “You have six fingers,” he noted.

She looked down at her hand, then back up in mild confusion. “All my kind have that many fingers. Why?”

He quickly shook his head. “It’s not important, just a passing thought.”

“Dipper!” Mabel startled him by barrelling down the street, out of breath. “There you are, thank goodness! I waited for a while thinking you’d come back but got bored, what’ve you been doing?” When she noticed Merrise he swiftly broke the weird hand-bond thing they’d been doing.

“Uh, this is Merrise. The kid who robbed me.”

“Who’s Dipper?” the alien girl asked quizzically.

“Oh, you can call me that if you like.” He turned to his sister, who was staring over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. “So, any luck finding more leads.”

“Nada, I talked to a few people, but nobody recognised any of the victims. I suppose a lot of people flowed through that place, must be hard to remember them all. I even talked to the head bartender, Teltoc, but he wasn’t interested in an… an interview…” She broke off abruptly and scowled in confusion. “Sorry, can I ask again why you were having what looked like a deep moment with a stray kid?”

“She seemed like she needed someone talk to. Go easy on her, her parents are both dead,” he whispered. “I was just trying to show her that not all aliens are bad.”

“Uh huh, and there’s no other reason at all why you’re acting so protective around her? None at all?”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, nothing…” She left off that tangent enigmatically. “So what do you think we should do? I was thinking maybe we could go to the spaceport to check arrival manifests.”

“Nah, that only helps us if the victims happened to arrive quite recently.”

“Do all of your species look as similar as you two?” The twins’ heads turned in unison to Merrise, who’d suddenly interjected. “Seriously, wow. It’s like seeing double.

The pair of them looked back and forth at each other, then realised what she meant. “No no, we’re twins you see,” Mabel explained. “Though I guess I’d have trouble telling you pink dudes apart too.”

“What were you talking about the spaceport for? And victims?”

Mason was getting the idea that this kid would see through any lie he tried to put forward. Even though he’d caught her with the journal, she had street smarts, he had to admit.

“We’re trying to solve a murder!” Mabel excitedly explained. Mason had hoped for a little more tact than that, but it would suffice.

“Look, we’re just here for a short while,” Mason added, trying to walk it back. “My wife is on her way to meet up with us at some point in the next few days, and then we’re leaving. See, there’s another example of a human. Pacifica doesn’t look like us, her hair is blonde and really long. And she’s very pretty,” he said, blushing.

Mabel couldn’t help but give her own input. “And Paz also has a pointier nose, and paler skin, like a vampire, ha!”

“Yes Mabes, thanks for that addition”

The small digs at Pacifica’s expense went over Merrise’s head. “But what about the murder! That sounds so exciting!”

Though Mason hadn’t expected her to be so onboard with the idea, he did see an advantage in their new young companion. “Hey, Merrise, I don’t suppose you could help us out? Me and Mabel are really new to Tengosa. We don’t know a lot about this city and we’re looking for leads regarding these victims.”

He got Mabel to pass Merrise the file. The girl silently looked at each profile in turn, making the twins wait for a response. Finally, she neatly tucked all the pages away and handed the folder back.

“I don’t know any of these guys, sorry.” Disheartened, the twins slumped and thought that was the end of it. But Merrise tapped one of the files and grinned. “But this guy, I know his brother…”

* * *

“…Since then we’ve been hopping about from place to place, me, Mabel, and Pacifica. We’re nearing our final target now, probably within a few weeks.” His enraptured young student was hanging on every word as Mason told the story of how they’d come to be here on Tengosa. “The last place we left before coming here was a water dimension, we didn’t stay long.”

“That’s all so cool Dipper! You’re like a great space pioneer or something!”

“I guess you could put it like that, yeah. But this world is cool too, I’d love to get another look at some of those feathered creatures I saw in the market.”

Behind them, Mabel privately chuckled to herself. Seeing her brother open up so much to this stranger was a bit of a curveball, but was proving handy as they were led through the streets. They moved in the general direction of the massive mountain, which all the buildings rose to meet. She was also finding it amusing just how attached Mason was becoming to Merrise. She knew what instinct was driving him, even if he himself was blissfully unaware.

They passed through areas adjacent to the abandoned sections of the city, which only the lowest of the low called home. Mabel saw more homeless kids like Merrise scatter as they neared, and adults sitting beneath blankets in the awnings of empty buildings. Once they pushed through closer to the centre of the city the streets became more populated, the style of dress more extravagant. They still weren’t in the richest part of the city, but people here were at least making a solid living.

Ahead of her, Mason was describing one of the places they’d visited in the multiverse, their meeting with the Grown on the living island. She stuck herself between him and Merrise and put an arm around each of their shoulders, interrupting the story. “So, we’re nearly there. Tell us about this guy we’re going to see. Degarin Pax, brother of the deceased Zegarin Pax. Have I got that right?”

Merrise nodded. “Degarin is one of the black-market dealers running this district. He does food trades sometimes, but most of his trade is in other stuff.”

“Other stuff?” Mason queried.

“I don’t know. He doesn’t tell kids what he sells. He makes a lot of trades with the gangs. They always talk about going to a high place after meeting him. I don’t think they mean any of the big towers though.”

“Drug dealer,” Mabel said bluntly. “Sounds like Mr Pax is in the narcotics business.”

“Wait, didn’t the file say his brother supposedly died of an overdose?” Mason looked to Merrise, whose dark eyes were even wider than usual. He’d have to tone down with the heavy talk when she was around. “It could be easy to pin that as a cause of death if he was actually poisoned,” he whispered to Mabel.

Despite his attempt and being subtle, Merrise blurted out, “Poisoned!? Are you guys serious?” Mason thought she was scared of the idea, before a moment later when she excitedly said, “That’s so cool, you guys are like total mystery solvers! Why didn’t you just go to the Morada honour guards though? They normally handle this stuff.”

“We’re outsiders,” he said with a shrug. “You think two aliens standing over a dead body would give a convincing argument? Besides, my sister here isn’t a big fan of police.”

“That’s me in a nutshell, Mabel Pines, troublemaker!”

“I thought you were Mabel Pines, PI?”

“I can be two things,” she said with wink.

“I don’t like the guards either,” Merrise said with an air of familiar dread. “They’d probably take me away somewhere if I went to them. They might even put me in the Mountain.” She shivered at the thought.

“You never know though,” Mason offered. “You might get sent to an orphanage, or a foster home. Maybe it would be better for you?”

“No, never! I won’t let anyone take me! I can survive fine on my own.” Despite her messy clothes and the fact she was scrounging on the streets, something about her made him believe that was true. The tough exterior she presented almost convinced him she didn’t need anyone’s help in life. Almost.

“This is the place.” Merrise pointed to a squat building at the end of the street. It looked shabby on the outside, but there was a warm glow coming from within. “The most popular gambling den on this side of the city.”

Mason didn’t fail to notice a pair of heavyset Tengosan bouncers guarding the entrance. “Well we can’t just stroll in the front door. That’s the easiest way to get noticed by Degarin, and we don’t want him pulling a runner before we can speak with him.”

“There’s a service door round the back, but it’s usually locked.”

“No biggie!” Mabel charged off without a moment’s hesitation. “You’re about to see a master at work, kid.” The rear of the establishment was quiet enough for them to work on the door unseen. Mabel checked it over quickly, then nodded to herself. “Metal fire escape, traditional one-way opening from inside. Give me five minutes and I’ll have it open.” She knelt down and started working on the door, using her trusty set of lockpicks.

Mason leant against the wall and left her to get one with her work without distraction. Merrise quickly got bored of waiting and hopped up on a nearby pile of crates. He was once again impressed by her acrobatics. She could jump a lot further than he could, it reminded him of Mabel’s confident parkouring.

Balancing on top of the crates Merrise called out to the twins. “You know, I’m really glad I met you too. I’ve never met any good aliens before.”

Mabel set down her tools for a moment and looked up at the girl. “No no, you see Merrise, we’re not _good_.” Unsure of where Mabel was going with this, Mason let her continue. “All humans are capable of doing bad things, like most beings. Do you think all Tengosans are good?” 

“No, of course not, we fight with other Tengosans in the war!”

“Exactly. There are good aliens, and bad aliens, just like there are good and bad Tengosans. We may look different and come from far away, but deep down all of us are fundamentally the same on the inside.”

Merrise mulled this over. Mason could practically see the gears turning in the little girl’s head as she processed the ideas. Mabel might be preachy at times, but she was undeniably right. He hoped Merrise could see that.

“Aha, got it!” The backdoor clicked as Mabel triggered it to open. “Open sesame! You’re welcome, hold the applause, please.” She bowed several times until Mason tapped her on the head.

“Yes, thank you sis, you’re the best, whatever.” Mabel beamed at him as he playfully rolled his eyes. What would have once a few months ago probably led to bickering was now room for playful banter between the twins. “Let’s get in there and- hey!” Merrise sprinted through the open door. “Don’t run in there so-“ She’d already vanished around a corner. “-hastily. Ugh, kids.”

Mable nudged his side. “Nice try, ‘dad’.”

He locked onto his sister with a steely gaze. “That’s not funny.” All the levity of the previous moments suddenly evaporated. Mason started heading inside, but Mabel wasn’t about to budge.

She grabbed his shoulder and roughly turned him back to face herself. “Come on, you can talk about it. I won’t tease you or anything. I think it’s sweet.”

“Sweet- think what’s sweet? Merrise is just helping us with this case, that’s all.”

“Don’t try to hide the way you’re acting around her, Mason. You’re getting weirdly attached and we both know why. Being all parental is a new look for you.”

“I’m not her parent though, am I?” He stared resolutely down at his feet. “Her parents are dead, and me and Paz can’t have kids. That’s it, we’re dropping this discussion. And since when did you start calling me Mason again?”

“I’m trying to be serious, Dip-for-brains. I’m just saying, you don’t have to clam up about this.” She tenderly squeezed his hand. “I know how much it all affected you. I’m trying to help.”

“Yeah, well.” He embarrassedly broke the contact and moved inside. But he reconsidered and stopped himself a moment later, then took a deep breath out. “We’ll talk about it later, ok? After we’re done here.”

Happy that he wasn’t angry at her, Mabel followed him into the gambling den, in search of both their target and their overeager new ward.

* * *

The fat, green toad known as Degarin Pax sat in the gloomy den, counting his credit chips after the latest game of Ayoheek. He hadn’t been having a particularly good streak lately. Luck didn’t seem to be on his side. He needed a few more wins if he was ever going to avoid enduring the wrath of the merchant clan he was indebted to. He was barely making a profit back off his illicit dealings since the war had started.

As it turned out, his luck was about to turn for the worse. Two mammals sidled up to his booth and sat down nonchalantly. He was about to shoo them away – what right did they have to sit in his private booth? – when they started loudly talking to each other.

“Man, what a dive this casino is.” Mason said.

“It’s hardly Lottocron X, is it?” his sister replied. “Would be a shame if the police knew what kind of unsavoury folk frequented this place.”

“Perhaps us upstanding citizens should make a report… unless perhaps we could get the intel ourselves.”

Squirming in his seat, Degarin poked a slimy finger at the twins. “What do you two want, eh? You ain’t got no dirt on me. I’m clean.”

“That’s debatable,” Mason said, fanning a hand in front of his nose. “You’re Degarin Pax. The dealer, and I don’t mean of cards.”

“You want a sample? Get to the back of the line, primates. I don’t have time for punks telling me who’s the boss.”

“We just want to have a little chat with you,” Mabel said, edging closer to him. “I can be a real good motivator if you’re feeling shy.” She cracked her knuckles, sending a clear sign to Degarin that they meant business. Edged in on both sides, the pressure was starting to get to him.

“Yeah, and if you don’t talk…” Merrise leapt down from where she’d been hanging onto a light fixture, coming to stand on the table. “Then I’ll make you!”

Degarin Pax burst out laughing. “You hired a kid for protection? Ballsy move. You’ve almost convinced me to talk with how weird you guys are. No cop would act like this.”

Seeing that they’d established some basic level of trust with the insect, Mason slid over the relevant case file. “Do you recognise this photo?”

“That’s my brother. May the stars above rest his soul.”

“Then perhaps you know why he was killed?”

“Eh, killed? My brother was an accountant! Wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Mabel and Mason shared a joint look of surprise. They’d been expecting the victim to have been a part of the same underworld community as his brother. “We’re pretty sure your brother was murdered, part of a larger spree,” Mason said, showing the rest of the folder. “Did he have any strange visitors recently, maybe someone who isn’t very fond of aliens?”

“How should I know? I never talked to him much.” 

His darting eyes and a layer of sweat forming on his scaly brow alerted Mabel to the fact that he was quite blatantly covering something up. “Talk. We’re not leaving without a new lead.”

“Yeah, or I’ll have a go at you!“ Merrise put her foot down decisively in front of Degarin.

“I’m telling you freaks again: I don’t know nothing!” He suddenly kicked out at the table, sending Merrise flying across the room. Startled, Mabel and Mason hurried to react as he leapt over and made a break for the front door.

Instead of directly pursuing, Mabel aimed her wrist and fired a shot from her gauntlet. The powerful energy blast missed Degarin, hitting a velvet curtain behind him which immediately burst into flame. The fire spread quickly, blocking off Degarin’s escape.

The other patrons and gamblers started screaming and bustling out the front. Despite Degarin’s short legs and dumpy girth he was fast on his feet. Mabel chased after him, but Mason stayed in the blazing casino. “Merrise! Are you alright?”

The girl was still on the floor, coughing up smoke. A protective instinct kicked in for Mason and he bundled her up in his arms. Carrying her to safety from the fire, he felt her arms grip around his neck. He had her safe in his embrace where she couldn’t be hurt.

Kicking out the still unlocked back door, they emerged gratefully out into the open air away from the smoke. He set Merrise down, checking she hadn’t been burnt or bruised by Degarin’s attack. “You’re alright, thank god. You shouldn’t have been so reckless.”

“I’m fine, Dipper. That guy was no trouble! Look.”

The back of the den was as empty of pedestrians as before. Mabel had Degarin Pax up against a wall, hands on the lapels of his suit. “I told you, I’m innocent!”

“I don’t care about that, just tell me what you know.”

“Now we can get to the bottom of this.” Mason stood beside his sister, hoping they could show a united front to intimidate the drug dealer. “We’re don’t care about anything you’ve been up to; we just want what you know about your brother’s death.”

“Good cop, bad cop, eh? I’m not falling for that.”

“Alright, time for more bad cop then,” Mabel said, shoving him harder against the wall. “More people might die if you don’t tell us what you know.”

“Ow! Ok, ok! You win!” Mabel loosened her grip, dropping Degarin so he fell onto the ground. Mason thought there was something pathetic about the man as he shrunk under their glare.

“Finally, answers. See Merrise, aliens are complex. Not all of them total jerks. Merrise?” He spun around but the alley was completely empty. “Where’s she run off to now?”

“Are you going to listen to what I have to say or what?” Degarin angrily said. “There was one small thing. My brother used to visit a certain place quite regularly. He took a lot of trips down to the spaceport before the end, I don’t know why.”

“To visit someone in particular?” Mabel asked? Degarin kept his mouth shut until she threateningly flicked her wrist.

“Yes, to meet someone!”

“A name. Give us a name,” she asked quickly, on the cusp of the big clue that might crack the case wide open.

Degarin Pax was about to answer the twins when something zipped between them. He clutched his neck and started gurning wildly. With one arm he swept out, pushing both of them away, only making it a few steps before collapsing in the middle of the alley.

“Oh no,” Mabel quietly said. Two deaths in one day was a more than she wanted to take in.

Mason reached around to where Degarin had desperately grabbed his neck in his last moments. There was a small, sharp silver object embedded in his scales. “Poison dart.” He scanned the buildings around them, worried that they might become the next victims.

“I was right,” Mabel said, punching the air despite the horror of the death. “These killings are deliberate! I knew it.”

“FREEZE!”

The alley was suddenly crawling with Tengosans in bright silver armour, coming in from all directions. The men were armed with long rifles with bayonets affixed on the ends. They saw Degarin’s body lying in the alley and aimed right at the twins.

“This is the Honour Guard, do not move, I repeat, do not!”

Mason shot to his feet and stuck his hands in the air as a gesture of surrender. Mabel raised her fists and tensed up, but saw the fight was already lost. Accepting her fate, she slowly also put her hands up. A guard riding on one of the magnificent plumed beasts rode over to cuff them.

Mason grimaced. “Well, I said I wanted to see one of these creatures up close. Oh boy.”

“Ok Dipper, I take it back. Maybe we should have just waited for Pacifica.”


	36. The Mountain

Above the city of Morada stood a great column of rock. It had no specific name; the populace simply called it the Mountain. Nearby structures used the gargantuan feature as a support to reach immense heights. But the most important part of the Mountain was the great walled enclosure atop its summit.

The most secure location on Tengosa, this was the prison that any criminals caught in the city were condemned to. With walls thicker than the hull of a battleship and guards patrolling all hours of the day, no prisoner had ever escaped.

There was a strange excitement that always spread around when new inmates arrived. In the central courtyard, the prisoners watched a gunship bringing two new prisoners touch down. The two pale aliens were shuffled into the processing wing.

The Pines twins were unceremoniously shoved down a metal corridor. Their first destination was the prison barber, a man whose many scars didn’t inspire much confidence in Mason. The guard forced them each into a chair, helpless to resist what came next.

The buzz of the razor, the quick motion of the barber’s hands, and it was all over. Locks of brown hair tumbled to the floor. The barber nodded and let the guards lead them to the next phase of processing.

Mabel ran a hand over the bristles on her head. She’d started out with a pixie cut several months ago when Mason and Pacifica had returned into her life. Since then she’d let it grow, not bothering to trim it since. Now the hair was bunched up around her feet. “Woah, cool! I’ve meaning to try out a buzzcut!” 

Mason was taking the situation much less calmly. “This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening!” On top of already feeling incredibly vulnerable from their capture, having his forehead birthmark so blatantly exposed was giving him a minor panic attack. It had been years since he’d been triggered by the constellation mark, now all the feelings of shame and embarrassment were coming back to him

“Oh lighten up bro, I’ve been in worse prisons. At least here we get three square meals a day! And we get to share a cell!” Out of nowhere Mabel was clutching a brochure with information on the prison and cheerfully browsing. “Dibs on top bunk!”

“I don’t care, Mabel, look at where we are! We’re in jail, or had you not noticed!”

This didn’t dampen her grin. She was treating this like a summer camp. A guard came over and removed their wrist cuffs. Against Mason’s ardent protests, he then confiscated their belongings, including their survival suits and hoppers.

“Hey, we need those!” The guard was implacable and ferried the now nude twins onto a conveyer belt. They were shunted along into the next room, a shower, where cold water was blasted at them. Mason squirmed, incredibly uncomfortable and trying to cover himself up.

Mabel just closed her eyes and let the water run over her. “It’s been years since we last bathed together, lol.”

“Ah, Mabel, shut up! Do you have to make this even more awkward!” Mason blushed deep red and wished for any kind of salvation. He sufficed with burying his head in hands. “I want to die. This is awful.”

The shower heads above them retracted, and long metal arms descended in their place. Mason gave a high-pitched yelp when the device stamped onto his upper arm. When it pulled away he saw that it had left a dark blue pattern in a swirl – some kind of Tengosan symbol marking him as a prisoner.

The automated tattoo device spent a while trying to find a bare patch of skin between all of Mabel’s other tattoos from over the years to apply the markings. Mabel just cooed excitedly, liking how the swirly alien markings fit in with her other tats.

The movable floor whirred up again, making Mason stumble as they were shifted into the next room. One-piece orange uniforms descended from above and wrapped themselves around each twin. Like their survival suits, the outfits adjusted themselves to fit perfectly.

A flash indicated their mugshots had been taken, then they were conveyed into yet another room. Mason once again felt unsteady, but his feeling of unease grew even worse as they passed a glass screen. Their belongings were being catalogued and bagged by guards in the room beyond. The horror of their situation dawned on him. Their precious hoppers, the survival suits, all their supplies and equipment, all of it was out of their hands. Even his most important possession was visible.

He banged his fists powerlessly against the glass. “That’s my journal!”

He recoiled in pain as the lights in the roomed turned dark red and both twins were hit with a spray from above. Even Mabel was affected for the first time, groaning in agony until they were conveyed out of the chamber.

“Decontamination complete,” spoke an unseen computer voice.

Breathing deeply, the twins took a second to recover. They didn’t have long before more guards arrived to drag them to their cell. Mabel at last seemed to resist, and as they passed the ranks of other inmates in the courtyard called out loudly. “Let us go! We’ve had no trial! We’re innocent!”

The guard hit her in the back lightly with the back end of his spear. “You can appeal the process once your lawyer arrives tomorrow. Now get moving or I’ll have to the pleasure of sending you through decontamination again, primate.”

The guard pushed them into their cell, a tight, cramped metal box with rigid bunk beds, and sealed the barred door behind them. Mason had picked up on something the guard had said however and pressed himself against the bars to call after him. “Lawyer? Wait, we have a lawyer?”

* * *

“More tea, Mrs Pines?” The central warden’s office had none of the brutal functional interior design as the rest of the mountain-top prison. Instead it was invitingly warm, with a desk of carved wood and bright cream wallpaper. The smiling warden, a chubby Tengosan, addressed his visitor genially. “Or perhaps I can entice you with a chocolate biscuit?”

“No thank you warden, I’m perfectly adequate,“ Pacifica responded. She sat upright in the chair neatly, presenting the portrait of refined woman. “As you know I’m here on behalf of my clients, Mason and Mabel Pines.”

“Ah yes. Those stone-cold assassins who killed that poor Degarin Pax out in the street. All my boys saw it. Could probably pin the death of Argon Meltrozz on ‘em too, they did find his file in their possession.”

“I’m here to sort all that out.” She brought out a folder of her own that she’d prepared, containing the case files on their arrest. It seemed like a cut and dry situation: two people found over the body of a man who died moments before. They’d even been seen aggressively confronting the man in the gambling den right before his death and caused a pretty nasty fire to boot. 

The evidence didn’t seem to be in their favour. But Pacifica Pines wasn’t about to let that stand in her way. On hearing about the arrest she’d spent the rest of journey to Morada reading every available document she could outlining the Tengosan legal system. She was ready.

“So, according to the Proper Procedure act, Subsection B, my clients should have had their rights read to them before being formally arrested. I’ve been over the reports, and it seems that didn’t happen. In addition, the murder weapon wasn’t found on the accused. Most of the evidence against the Pines seems to be witness testimony from the patrons of the casino they were found behind, many of whom also have prior criminal records. I also have some inference that there was some undue intimidation as well, certain bylaws weren’t abided by in my clients’ treatment upon arrival at this… charming prison.” She closed the folder and sat back with arms crossed, smugly assured that she had an ironclad defence.

“I’ll have to waive most of those defences I’m afraid. Sorry my dear, but there’s little I can do.”

“Excuse me?!” she spluttered out. “But the case against them is so flimsy! It won’t stand up in a proper court of law. There’s more evidence to gather, motives to assume. For crying out loud they haven’t even had the trial yet and you’re already locking them up!”

“Like I said Mrs Pines, can’t do a thing.” The warden casually shrugged, and Pacifica had to struggle to restrain herself from leaping over his ‘finely crafted’ desk and throttling him right there. Her hands shook as she took a sip of tea to try and calm herself down. “I allowed you in here because you impressed me, Mrs Pines. Why, I trust you implicitly, with your impressive credentials.” All forged, of course. Pacifica knew how to make a piece of paper look professional enough to get her through the front door. “Not to mention your reference is outstanding. The Great Healer himself, wow.”

“So surely you can let Mason and- sorry, surely you can let _my clients_ go.”

“I really am sorry, but with the war on we’ve had to be extra cautious. I suppose we could have swept the death of that alien, Pax, under the carpet, but Meltrozz was a natural-born citizen of East Tengosa. We had to give a show of force, pacify the populace ya see. Tricky business, these murders, but now we finally have someone to pin it on.”

“So they’re patsies? Fall guys so you can congratulate yourself in front of the media.”

“Well… yes. That’s about the whole of it.” The teacup in Pacifica’s hand shattered into a million pieces as her grip intensified. “Oh dear, shall I get you another drink? On the house, of course my dear.”

“I’m. Fine.” She balled her fists and gathered up all her pointless legal documents. “What will get them out of this stupid, hellish… I mean, lovely, approachable prison, that you run so very well?”

“Why, you’d need some kind of confession from someone else, and indisputable evidence.”

Pacifica thought about it for a moment. She didn’t know the details of what the twins had been working on. She’d spent all her research looking up arcane legal loopholes that wouldn’t serve her at all now. “Can’t you at least let me speak with them, one to one?”

“Visiting hours for our prisoners are in three days’ time, at midday. That’s the best I can do.”

“Great,” she said, leaving the warden’s office. “Hold on guys. Three days, then I can start to put things right.”

* * *

Mason did not sleep well on his first night in prison. Somehow it wasn’t the cold cell, or the painfully hard metal bunk that kept him awake the most, but rather Mabel’s noisy snoring. Even in jail she could still fall asleep like a light-switch when she needed to.

There was a ball of anxiety growing in his stomach. Everything had gone wrong so fast. Now their mission to carry on through the multiverse seemed hopeless. The one consolation he had was that Bokamoso, or one of the other team members if they’d survived, might still have a chance of tracing the mystery signal and thwarting the a-mortals.

By the time the sun had risen, and light streamed through the cell window he’d barely slept a wink, too consumed with worry. The cell door slid open as a voice spoke over the intercom. “Feeding time, grunts.”

He groggily rolled off his bunk and wiped a hand over his face. Startling him, Mabel dropped down next to him and slapped him on the back. “What are you waiting for, slowpoke? It’s chow time!” She hurried off down the prison corridor. She was already totally awake and alert, ready for the day in mere seconds. Right now he greatly envied his sister’s survival skills.

Stepping out into the prison corridor in the light of day, he saw that their cell was on a third-floor level. The cells hugged the walls, and there was an open area in the middle of the hall where he could see down ground level. Or at least, he thought to himself, Mountain level, since they were still about a mile or two above the base of the city below.

A few guards patrolled the walkways, but Mason was more worried about the other prisoners he was sharing the space with. He kept his head down and filed after Mabel, hoping to avoid any kind of interactions with the other inmates.

If he’d wanted to stay anonymous, then entering the mess hall removed any chance of that. The ranks of tables left nowhere to hide. He spied his sister, already sat at one of the tables and cheerfully wolfing down her food. More pressingly, here he could see the massed ranks of prisoners, most of whom he noted were Tengosan. Female Tengosans at that. In fact, as he made his way over to the serving area, he realised that there wasn’t a single other male prisoner in the whole place. That didn’t make him feel any safer though. Who knew what crimes these people had committed to be sent to this impenetrable fortress.

He gathered a tray and quickly collected his food – a grey shapeless glob of gruel – and hurried over to sit beside Mabel. “Have you tried this stuff, Dipper?” she asked between mouthfuls as she scooped more of the slop up. “Surprisingly nutritious.”

He poked at the food with a spoon, the urge to eat this dreck about the furthest thing from his mind. “Don’t you think we should be concerned with more important matters than breakfast?”

“Like what?” She tapped her spoon against her chin and swallowed. “You have to look at the big picture. We’re in prison, that’s life. You either get used to that and accept it, or you go slowly crazy. Simple as that.” She lazily shrugged before diving back into the gruel with an eager zeal that almost made Mason want to throw up.

“How can you be so calm at a time like this?” His eyes darted around the room, considering every nearby prisoner a potential threat.

“Eat, Dipper.” Mabel tapped her spoon on the edge of his tray. “You need the energy.” She snatched some gruel off his plate and started flying it about in her spoon. “The airplane’s heading into turbulence, woah!”

“Alright, alright, you big goof.” Laughing at how simultaneously wise and immature his sister could be, he picked a spoonful of the grey stuff and took a bite. He immediately regretted doing so and started choking. “Ah, that’s disgusting!”

His outburst drew the attention of several turned heads in their area of the canteen. Mabel tried to hush him. “Quiet bro, just sit and eat, don’t rock the boat on our first day.”

“Ugh, I can’t stand it. Maybe… maybe if I go ask the server I can get something more palatable.”

“Dipper, wait!”

He stood up, driven a tired and stressed brain, and turned around only to walk straight into another prisoner. His tray went right into the prisoner’s chest, covering her in the sticky gruel. Mason hid behind the tray and meekly apologised in a high-pitched voice. “Sorry! Didn’t see you there, oops.”

Despite grimacing as hard as he could, the prisoner didn’t take it well. Mason was picked up by the scruff of his neck by a musclebound woman who’d give Grenda a run for her money in the abs department. There was a series of hushed oohs and ahhs from the other prisoners. Even the guards chuckled to themselves. They were all anticipating a scuffle.

Mason squirmed and wriggled in the Tengosan’s grasp, not exactly resisting with much dignity. “Please, I didn’t mean it! Please don’t hurt me!”

The woman looked him right in the eyes. “Nobody messes with me on my turf, especially not some pale little off-worlder!”

Mabel tried to get between them. “That’s my brother you’re threatening!”

“Hands off! In this place he’s nothing but a weak little chew-toy!”

“I’d really reconsider hurting him. Not unless you want to suffer worse in response.”

Between the two, Mason wasn’t sure if he was more scared of the one holding him or his sister. “Can’t we resolve this like civilised beings. You know, rational debate, apologies all around, peace between different folk.”

“Peace?” Mason was suddenly dropped by the prisoner. He cowered as she stared down at him. Then she gave a sharp laugh. “Ha! I knew you newbies would be on our side!”

“Excuse me?” Mason replied in a strangled breath, still fearful of an impending beating.

“You’re against the war too! Ah, it’s nice to meet some fellow conscientious objectors.”

The atmosphere in the room changed in an instant. A hearty cheer erupted from the gathered inmates, and the guards looked about as uneasy as Mason had in the prisoner’s grip. “You’re pacifists?!” Mabel asked with wide eyes. “No way! I had you totally pegged as the mean aggressive type!”

The woman pulled Mason to his feet with a single pull that sent a jolt through his arms. No sooner was he upright than she was shaking his hand vigorously. “I’m Kerrel. I was imprisoned in this place because I spoke out against our _beloved_ prime leader. This war with the West Tengosans is a complete farce.”

“Uh, nice to meet you?” Mason sat back down, his arm lightly aching from the enthusiastic greeting.

“What are you in for, mammals?” The Tengosan asked, eager to know more about them.

“We were framed for a murder we didn’t commit!” Mabel said in dramatic tones. “The real killer is out there, running free and hurting people even now!”

Kerrel shook her head. “Any excuse to get you behind bars. We’ve got at least seven other ‘murderers’ in her. Not to mention draft dodgers, political activists, anyone who so much as criticises the government. I myself am serving three consecutive life terms.”

“No way, that’s badass!” Mabel looked at the prisoners surrounding her with a newfound admiration. 

Mason still wouldn’t feel safe until he had his journal and hopper back but was glad that it seemed they weren’t alone in here. “Why are all of the prisoners here women though? Where are all the male prisoners? Surely there must be some men who are against the war.”

“They get sent to the smaller prisons,” Kerrel said with a shrug. “The Mountain is the important place.”

“But why, surely they’re just as dangerous politically?”

“You don’t seem to get it. newbie. The only people locked up in here are the one the government wants to use to make a point. You’re not here because of what you did. You’re here because our corrupt leaders want to make a demonstration. That’s what all of us are here for.”

“But you turned the tables,” Mabel said, smiling at what she’d realised. “They thought sticking a bunch of ‘dainty feminine’ prisoners in a tough place like this would make a point about how weak the opposition to the war is. You guys are so tough you’re making the whole thing backfire. I love it, so performative.”

Kerrel blushed at the praise. “So, you two think you got what it takes to stand against our corrupt government and stick it to the man?”

Mason knew what Mabel’s response would be before she said it, and inwardly hoped this wouldn’t lead to yet more trouble in the long run.

“Hell yeah!” Mabel said, fistbumping with the Tengosan prisoner.

“You’ll fit right in.”

* * *

“Pines. You’re up next.”

The guard ushered Mason over to the wall of separated dividing screens, giving him a glimpse to the outside world. Each of the other booths was occupied with another inmate, talking to relatives or friends who’d come to see them.

Through the window he was directed to was the person he most wanted to see staring back at him. “Pacifica, thank god. I’m so glad you’re ok. I’ve been worried sick ever since we arrived.”

Pacifica smiled softly and placed a hand on the glass. “Missed you too, Ursus. And say hi to Mabel for me when you get a chance.” 

“I promise. So what happened to you, Princess? I hope getting to Morada wasn’t too much trouble.”

“Don’t get me started. I ended up right in the middle of war zone; in _West_ Tengosa. I’d say I have the scars to prove it, but… nevermind. Managed to hitch ride across the battle lines and here I am. By the way, loving your new rugged look,” she said, suppressing a chuckle.

Mason ran a hand miserably across his head, bristling at the touch. The only part of his hair that hadn’t been shaved was his goatee. “I know, I look like a Bond villain now.”

“Bet Mabel rocks that look, as always.”

“It’s ridiculous, she spends three days in this joint and she’s already top dog. Has the other prisoners eating out of her hand. I don’t know how she does it.”

“She’s a people person Mace, there’s not much more to it than that.

“Well whatever it is, she’s up to something. Her and the other prisoners aren’t sitting still. They’re planning something. I don’t mean to rush you Paz, but I think they’re gonna make a move soon.”

“Getting you out of the toughest prison on the planet’s not exactly a simple task. I’ve been busting my ass these last few days trying to find a solution. The place is tied up in more red tape that I can take anymore, I can’t get you out legally. I can’t even finagle a sham trial or something, the higher-ups want you in prison for as long as the war continues.”

“Well we can’t sit around waiting for a sudden outbreak of peace, can we. Argh, it’s so annoying, this damn wall between us. Can’t you smuggle something inside? If you could only get us our hoppers, only for a moment-“

“Quiet,” Pacifica shushed him with a harsh whisper. “It was hard enough getting in to see you. You want to get me thrown out?”

“Sorry. I’m just so hopeless in here.” He slumped into a hand.

“I guess there’s no way you’re getting out then… unless…”

Mason saw a determination behind his wife’s eyes that spurred a hope inside him. “Unless?”

“Unless somebody brings the real culprit to justice.”

“You wanna pick up our case? Wow, that’s great!”

“It’s why I needed to see you. As well as checking that you two were ok, you know.”

“There’s the classic ever-caring woman I married,” he said, playfully rolling his eyes. “Alright, so the case. One of the victims was seeing someone near the spaceport. It’s a common meeting place for off-worlders. We think he was poisoned, like his brother was with the dart. Here, I’ll give you the address of where Degarin Pax was killed.” He scrawled a quick note on a piece of paper and passed it through the thin exchange hatch, hoping the guards wouldn’t care enough to confiscate it when Pacifica was checked as she left the prison. “The police have been totally useless in checking for clues, so maybe you can find something we missed.”

“Aliens being killed, murderer uses poison, possibly operating around the spaceport. Got it.”

“Also if you’re lucky you might meet someone who can give you more information… but that’s just a long-shot.”

Mason stared off into space for second, leaving Pacifica confused. “That’s it, that’s all you can give me to go on? It’s not much.”

“We were working on some pretty tenuous leads I’ll admit.” A harsh buzz sounded that indicated Pacifica’s visiting time was up. A guard came over to take Mason back to the cellblock so he quickly spoke to get as much information out as he could. “Oh, one last thing, don’t know if it’ll help. The detective who got us into this case, his last words: ‘Another round’, that’s what he said.”

“Means nothing to me. But I’ll do my best. I will get you two out of there. That’s a promise.”

“I love you Pacifica.” They each placed a hand on the glass one last time before the guard nudged him. “Ok, ok, I’m going. Sheesh.”

“Stay safe in there,” Pacifica whispered. “I love you too.”

* * *

Pacifica made her way across the city, drawing strange looks from the locals she passed. Mason and Mabel’s faces had been plastered all over the news; there were even a few billboards proudly displaying their mugshots. The infamous alien killers – brought to justice and locked away in the Mountain. Sensationalist nonsense, but it made sure that enough citizens noted Pacifica as being similar to the twins.

She ignored the looks, head down and moving with a purpose towards the address she’d been entrusted with. When she got there, all she found was a lonely, dirty alley. The building adjacent was just a burnt-out wreck. Another decaying building abandoned, but this time not the encroaching impact of the bombing raids.

The twins’ handiwork three days ago was the cause of this particular case of arson. She peered inside but there was nothing but charred furniture. There weren’t going to be any clues that survived the blaze.

Scaffolding had been set up along the street, yet there were no construction workers or other equipment. Just another empty show for the cameras she supposed. This place wasn’t actually going to be renovated anytime soon. To be fair, the building was pretty ugly. She’d probably just tear it down and build something new.

Trying to search for a way forward on the case, her eye turned down to street level. A chalk outline of Degarin Pax was etched in the street where he’d fallen, a last haunting echo of the dead man. He’d been taken down in a single instant by a distant attacker. For that very reason she’d made sure to wear her survival suit on this outing, just in case there was some kind of reprisal or follow-up attack.

She tried to trace back what had happened, to play the events back in her mind from what she’d read in the honour guard’s report. Degarin died on the ground. Before that, the twins had him up against the wall. She had to guess roughly where, but some cardboard boxes that had been knocked over in the struggle showed her the place.

If this is where he’d been hit with the toxic dart… she pivoted on the spot, figuring out angles of approach and trying to locate where the dart had been fired from. Though the building was damaged from the fire, she could just about make out an upper window that could have been where the killer was positioned.

“Shit,” she cursed. Any evidence up there would be fried to a crisp. Another dead end. Her only option now would be to roam around the spaceport, hoping she’d stumble into the next clue. She didn’t rate her chances very highly in finding anything that way.

“So that’s what blonde hair looks like.”

Pacifica craned her head up to where the voice had come from. Sitting impishly on a piece of scaffolding was a young Tengosan girl. She had an intent glare that made her feel uncomfortable. Usually it was herself who intimidated people like that.

“What do you want, kid? If you hadn’t noticed I don’t have time to parlay with the common folk.”

“You’re looking for the real killer. Sure would be handy if you – I dunno – had a clue or something like that?”

“You’re trying my patience.”

Pacifica didn’t think the scaffolding looked like it would take her weight, nor did she relish the idea of trying to scramble up without falling. If this girl did know something, she’d have to win her over to old-fashioned way: By talking nicely.

“Come down, little girl, and maybe you can tell me what you know.”

The kid pursed her lips in thought for a moment, then went back to casually swinging her legs back and forth. “You probably want this, don’t you?” She held out a small grey object, sharpened at one end.

“The poison dart! Give it here.”

“If you want it, come get it! See you later, Pacifica.” The girl leapt down and sprinted away down the alley.

“Wait, what?!” Pacifica barely had time to react before she broke into a chase. “Hey! Get back here you little welp! I need that!”

She lost sight of the girl around the first corner but heard her continuing giggles from a distance. So much for a forensic approach to solving the mystery, now she was chasing random kids around the backstreets.

Running out of breath quickly, she stopped only a few blocks from the burnt-out gambling den and rested against a wall. To her surprise, the girl curiously stuck her head around the corner up ahead. She hadn’t been seriously trying to get away. She’d been playing with her.

Pacifica darted forwards, yanking the dart out of the girl’s hands in a single quick motion. “Hey! You’re not as nice as I’d thought you’d be.”

“Yeah, well suck it up, you little brat.” She checked over the dart in her hand. A sharp tip with a thin hollow casing for the poison. Easy to miss, especially when the cops were so corrupt and inept. The girl was still standing there, staring at her with those big round eyes. “How do you know my name anyway?”

“How many other blonde-haired, pointy-nosed, pale-skinned humans do _you_ see in Morada?”

Pacifica blinked a few times. “Ok, good response.” The girl raised her eyebrow and stared at Pacifica’s silver and red survival suit. “Alright kid, you’ve had a good look. Now tell me who you are.”

“I’m Merrise,” she said, smirking. Pacifica was quietly stunned at her audacity, as she reached out and ran a hand through her blonde locks. “Dipper was right, you are very pretty. For an alien, I guess.”

“Should’ve guessed you’d run into my husband,” she scoffed. “So you’re the person Mason said could give me extra information. But you’re just a kid! How old are you, like 5?”

“I’m 9!” Merrise crossed her arms and stuck out her bottom lip. Then her expression notably softened. “Are the twins alright? I saw that they got arrested. When I heard the guards coming I bolted before they could catch me too.”

“Not like you could’ve stopped it I guess.” Despite her annoyance towards the girl, she did look genuinely upset about Mason and Mabel’s arrest. “The twins are doing as well as they can. They’re surviving. I’m trying to bust them out of that dumb rock.”

“You’re trying to solve the murder? Sweet! I can help for sure!”

“Yeah right. Run along back home, kid. This stuff is far too dangerous for someone your age to tag along.”

“I don’t have a home. It was in one of the districts that was abandoned cause of all the bombing raids. It wasn’t safe.”

“Oh… What about family? A mom and dad?”

“Both dead.”

Pacifica’s mouth flapped open uselessly. “Yeesh kid, not making this easy.” Pacifica sighed and rubbed her temples. “Fine, you come with me. What do I care. Just don’t get in the way.”

“I can do better than that. I saw the murderer!”

“Really, you?”

“Uh huh!” The girl gave an over-exaggerated nod that reminded her of Mabel. “I ran from the guards and saw him up in the window. Really scrawny guy. And Tengosan. Mason thought that was important; he was definitely a local.”

“That’s… actually really helpful. Good work.” Pacifica flashed her a quick smile, making Merrise grin widely.

“There’s some markings on the dart too.”

Pacifica rolled over the silver dart and saw that she was correct. A small manufacturers label printed along the cylinder, as well as a return address. “Why didn’t you mention this before? Would have been nice to know. With your description this practically leads us right to the culprit.”

“I can’t read.”

“Riiiiiiight. Guess that goes hand-in-hand with the no parents and no home thing.” She found herself fiddling with her pendant and pacing, before fixing her gaze on Merrise. “Look kid, I’m not good with this stuff, ok? I was raised pretty rich, but I try to be better. So I’ll give you the lead on this one.” She pointed to the side of the dart. “Do you know your way around this city? The writing says where the dart was made. The metal casing at least, not the poison inside. We go to who made it, we can find out who it was sold to. Ergo, our murderer. Capiche?”

“I think so. What does Capiche mean?”

“It’s… forget it. Can you or can’t you find this place in the city?”

“No problem, I know these streets like the back of my hand!”

“Alright. This was produced at 715 Argamon Road.”

Merrise stuck her tongue out and thought for a second, before bursting out with the answer. “I know just the place, follow me!”

Pacifica was led by the hand through the streets by the excited girl. Even through a busy market square the girl kept her tight grip. Pacifica was starting to see why Mason had trusted in this kid. She could see right through any kind of façade she tried to put up. She couldn’t have survived for that much time living on the streets without learning how to read people fast. Pacifica had to trust that she could lead to her the right place soon. Mason and Mabel were counting on it.

* * *

“Dipper? Dippppppper? Dipper, wake up will you!”

“Huh, wha?” Mason awoke from another fitful night’s sleep and, blinking through the dark, saw his sister’s face pressed up right against his. “Ah! Mabel, you’re kind of in my personal space! I know we’re in jail and the concept of individual freedom is a little lax, but still.”

“Get up, lazybones,” she said in a quiet whisper. “It’s nearly time.”

“Time for what?” He rolled over and faced the wall trying to ignore her hanging over his bunk like a vulture. Try as he might, he could still sense Mabel’s eyes drilling into his back. He rolled over grumpily “What, what is it? Haven’t you figured out by now that it’s the same routine every night? We’ve been here three days already, it’s not hard.”

Despite his irritated response, Mabel seemed to still be anticipating something. She was perched on the edge of the bunk, staring off towards the cell door. Her knee was even bobbing up and down. “Any minute now.”

She had his curiosity piqued now. Not quite enough to get him out of bed, but he took notice of Mabel’s behaviour. She was prepared for something, that was obvious. What that something would turn out to be was the question.

Mason heard a quiet sound like crumpling metal, then a muffled bang. “Yes, it’s finally time!” Mabel excitedly said, leaping to her feet. A second later, the barred door of the cell slid away, its lock burnt out.

Mason jolted upright, bashing his head on the frame of the bunk above. Rubbing his head, he awkwardly fell out of bed and followed Mabel, who was already standing out on the balcony. “What the hell?” Mabel was looking left and right, making sure the coast was clear, then started creeping down the hall past the rows of cells. Before she got too far away, Mason called after her as loud as he dared. “Hey, explanation please!”

She shuddered, not expecting him to break the silence. “Shh Dip, you’re gonna ruin the plan.”

“Plan? Oh no, no no no! This is an escape plan isn’t it!” He crossed his arms and stepped back into the cell. “Count me out, if you wanna commit suicide, go ahead.”

“Be serious, this is our chance, tonight. The girls have a whole plan and everything.”

“The girls… right.” Much like with Merrise, first appearances with their fellow prisoners had been more than he bargained. Almost all of the prisoners here were sympathetic to the twins’ wrongful arrest and were keenly aware of the corruption behind those running the prison. All the same, leaping into an ill-advised escape attempt wasn’t on his list of priorities.

“Get back in bed, Mabel. We should just sit tight and wait for Pacifica to finish her investigation.”

“Yeah right, and rot in the big house for who knows how long! Besides, this isn’t about us. I’m needed for the plan; we’ve got others I want to help break out.”

“Do we really have to? I mean, this is dangerous stuff! The guards here aren’t messing around” He said, trying to convey the severity of what would happen if they got caught.

“You think I don’t know that? I might have made it look like I was playing around, but I know exactly what I’m getting into. I’m helping these people escape. They can fix things on Tengosa, for everyone.”

Mason sighed, and stepped back into the open hallway, regretting what he was doing. Yet he had to give his sister credit. She really did sound genuine about trying to make this planet a better place. Given all the squalor of the living conditions – or lack of – he’d seen out in the city, he had more reason than usual to go along with her.

“You know me too well. I’m no good at arguing against you.”

Mabel winked and grabbed his wrist. He was barely out of the cell before she pulled him along in a run. “Gotta make up for lost time!” He watched the cells as they passed, hoping none of the prisoners would wake up and alert the guards to their presence. Then again, given where the sympathies of most of them laid, they were more likely to turn a blind eye.

“So how’d they bust the cell door?”

“Brewed up a slow-use acid on their canteen duty shifts. Told you that gruel was worthwhile.”

Mason nodded, appreciating the effort the convicts had gone to, even for such strangers as they were. They rushed down a flight of stairs and around a corner. He thought for a second they’d run into a guard patrol, but it turned out to be a gathering of prisoners outside another open cell door.

“Good, the last of our little gang has arrived. Down to business.” Kerrel, the large brute they’d met on day one, welcomed them into a huddle. She seemed to be the most influential prisoner, an informal leader of sorts. It seemed she’d be coming with them, along with three other prisoners. “Mabel, are you ready with your distraction?”

“Whenever you need me, K!”

“Good. This a last-minute change. We’re one con down, since Furoo’s in the hole tonight. Mabel’s offered to fill her role, and that means her brother’s coming along too.” Kerrel fixed Mason with a critical eye. He wasn’t happy with all the attention, as all the others stared at him too. “That means we’ve got one extra pair of feet to try and smuggle out. We all know the risks of this kind of thing. If we want any chance of busting this joint, it has to be tonight, and it has to be quiet.”

The inmates all nodded. Under their harsh gaze, Mason had little choice but to go along with it. As soon as Mabel saw him nod, she slapped him on the back. “Let’s do this!”

The group of six, four Tengosans and the twins, moved swiftly out of the cell block. They’d chosen a period of about 10 minutes during a guard rotation when this area was unobserved. The next step in Kerrel’s plan involved crossing the plateau courtyard, open to the bare sky. It was crisscrossed constantly by searchlights, dividing the prisoners from the canteen, administration wing, and shower blocks.

“Alright, your time little one.” Kerrel rested a hand on Mabel’s shoulder. She directed her to the nearest spotlight, affixed to a guard tower. “This would have been Furoo’s job. We just need a few seconds of darkness, no fuss.”

“I can do it K, trust me.”

Mabel closed her eyes and affixed a look of concentration. Mason sweated as the seconds passed. His fellow inmates shuffled around, unsure of what they were waiting for. Idly, he wondered what supposed ‘crimes’ they’d been charged with to end up in this place. 

“Lumen Nullius!” Mabel suddenly cried out of nowhere. Mason watched as the light from the tower seemed to fade back on itself gradually, as if covered by a cloud, until part of the courtyard descended into murky shadow.

“Good work Mabel!” Kerrel congratulated, before sprinting across the concrete plaza towards a building Mason hadn’t been in before. Still slightly absorbed in concentration, Mason shook Mabel, causing her to regain full composure. They ran to catch up with Kerrel moments before the spotlight switched back on, the effects of the spell fading away.

The other prisoners all took turns cheering Mabel on, before Kerrel hushed them. “Not out of the woods yet. Next phase of the plan is the riskiest.”

“Well, in for a penny, in for a pound,” Mason said, drawing blank looks from the Tengosans. “It’s an Earth saying, forget it. What’s next then, Kerrel? Is it to do with whatever’s in this building?”

“Sure is, Pines. Mabel, you run along and set up the distraction.” Mabel saluted and ran off, hugging the wall and staying out of the sweep of the lights. Kerrel slapped the side of the building they were pressed up against. “This here is the prison armoury. Packed with enough high explosives to punch a hole through a tank! Or for our purposes, a hole in the Mountain perimeter wall.”

“Wait, hold on.” Mason held up a hand. “Go back a bit. You mean we’re breaking out by going _down the side of the mountain_?! The mile-high, sheer-cliffed mountain?!”

“Quiet down! I said it was risky, didn’t I? If we choose the place carefully, there are spots where the tower blocks are high enough for us to slide down to.”

“That’s still falling hundreds of feet! We’ll break our legs, if not our necks! And what about when the guards come running when they hear the blast?”

“That’s what your sister’s just gone to avoid happening. In a few minutes she’s going to do a full override on the electrical systems. Without power it’ll cause every cell on the Mountain to open up. Presto, instant mass breakout and riot.”

“Say what?!” Mason’s heart was beating in his chest. “Why wasn’t I told this sooner?!”

Kerrel, now frustrated at his questioning, dragged him towards the armoury door. “Don’t weasel out on us. We haven’t got time for you to be squeamish. It’s now or never.”

* * *

Across the sleeping city, Pacifica and her new companion made double-time, with the scent of discovery driving them forwards. The place the dart had been manufactured turned out to be a small mechanics’, who had a smelter for making replacement parts. To Pacifica’s complete lack of surprise, it was located near the spaceport, the place in the city with the highest concentration of alien residents. If someone wanted to pick off non-locals, this was the place to be.

A quick discussion with the mechanic, as well as the added persuasion of threatening to tell the honour guard about his connection to the murders, and Pacifica and Merrise were given the address of a nearby apartment tower. A Tengosan man matching Merrise’s description had apparently commissioned about 20 darts a month prior. Just before the murders had started.

The two of them edged along the tight corridors, looking for the specific apartment number where they’d most likely find the killer. The passed faceless doors, each hiding an entire life’s worth of mysteries behind them. Pacifica was prepping herself up for a tense encounter, possibly even an outright brawl. This guy was supposedly the one who’d killed dozens of people recently. Who was to say he wouldn’t silence the two of them as well?

Merrise interrupted her train of thought with a question. The girl might be quick-witted, but she was also quite impertinent too. “So, what is Humos like?”

“Humos?”

“You know, your home planet. Mason told me you were humans, right?”

“Our home is called Earth.”

“Like- like the dirt?”

“Yes, like the dirt.” She rolled her eyes, but the question had been honest enough. “Earth is… not too different from this place. People don’t all get along. Not everyone lives in a high and mighty palace. But…”

“But?”

“I saw a lot of my home recently. Me and the twins travelled all across the world. That showed me lots of places, lots of people. There’s still hope, if they can all band together with one common goal.“ It sounded overly sentimental coming from her lips. Even similar to the Society of the Open Eye’s most common talking points. But she meant what she said. Seeing so much variety in such a short time, seeing their group work on the portal as one, it did make her want to make the world a better place. If her parents could hear her now.

The door of the murderer’s apartment was no different to any of the others in the building. Just a simple wooden door. Pacifica knocked three times in succession, receiving no answer. “That’s how it’s gonna be, eh?”

“Ooh, ooh!” Merrise hugged her arm and bounced excitedly. “Are you gonna use a fancy lockpicking skill like Mabel?”

“Nope.” Pacifica reeled back and unleashed a single powerful kick. The locked door smashed open, scattering splinters of wood. “And that’s how I do things, kid.” Wasting no time, she stormed into the apartment.

Immediately she halted, scrunching up her face. There was an almighty scent in the room, overpowering her senses. It was far too sweet, though she couldn’t pin down the exact aroma. Merrise followed her in, holding her nose and wincing.

The main living room seemed empty, but there was a light mist wafting around. Pacifica let her nose guide her to a bedroom. The door required no force this time. Inside, sprawled out on a bed, was a tall Tengosan man. The stench of whatever was causing the odd smell was even stronger in here. Pacifica saw a strange cylindrical object lying on the floor beside the man’s outstretched arm. Though it didn’t look like any she recognised, the thin tube pumping out smoke told her it was a bong.

The man barely noticed as they entered. He was staring up at the ceiling with a lazy grin on his face, his wide eyes fixed on a random point.

“He’s high,” Pacifica stated with an edge of mild revulsion. She shook the man’s side, trying to make him wake up to their presence. “Hey, get up!”

“Watch it, you’ll spoil the flow…” The man’s dream-like voice put her under no apprehensions that he cared about the two strangers in his apartment one bit.

“Pacifica, over here.” Merrise had opened a cupboard, revealing a rack of silver darts.

“Hey presto.” Pacifica took a dart and compared to the one that had killed Degarin Pax. Identical, though the one from the cupboard felt slightly weightier, having not delivered its poison load yet. She waved the darts in the man’s face. “Care to explain?”

The man took one look at the darts and burst out laughing. “It’s all over, man. I’m free as a bird! Honour guard’ll never catch me now.”

“What are you babbling about?”

“They got the fall guys! They really think a bunch of filthy aliens are going around killing their own. Ha! Now go away, I’m celebrating.”

Merrise tugged on her arm. “I know this guy. He runs a bar just around the block. He’s Teltoc.”

“A bartender?” Pacifica looked down at the dart in her hand. “That explains the ‘poison’. Not just any poisoning… alcohol poisoning.” Teltoc had a grin on his face during the explanation, like he was enjoying hearing his plan spoken out. 

“It makes sense, he serves all sorts in that bar. Every alien likes a different drink, he must mix up dozens of varieties a day.“

“So you think he’d have some idea how to brew up a batch like this? An overdose here, an imbalance of chemicals there. All the while, he flies under the radar cause everyone assumes the deaths are accidents.”

“But why’d he do it?”

“Because it was so fun!” Teltoc, still laughing uncontrollably, tried to speak through his delirium. “Every day those animals walk into my bar. Easy money. All those beings, all that potential. Why not go to town and see what I could do? It’s not like it mattered! They’re not people, they’re space scum.”

For the second time this week, Pacifica was struck by the callousness on display. It was uncomfortably familiar to the rhetoric she’d been fed while in hospital. Using different species as guinea pigs, either for study or just to get some vicarious thrill from killing them. It didn’t matter. The result was the same, even if the scale of one was far smaller.

“Merrise, I need your help. We’re dragging this piece of shit to the nearest honour guard and handing him over. We’ve got enough evidence to link him to the death of Pax at least.” She took another look at the pathetic giggling killer. “Not to mention he’ll probably give a full confession anyway.”

* * *

Mason tried to ignore the blaring alarms and flashing red lights, passing miniature charges the size of tangerines over to Kerrel. These weren’t the main payload, just the trigger. A small delayed blast to set off the fireworks.

Time was pressing down on them. Mabel had returned after resetting the power. Now the prison had erupted into utter chaos, with a full-blown riot ongoing in the cell block. As planned, this diverted all the attention away from the armoury. The guards were tough, but they weren’t about to unleash this kind of heavy weapon on prisoners who had nowhere to go.

Kerrel’s three associates (who Mason had yet to find the time to ask their names) were assembling a stack of crates filled with explosive compounds behind the armoury, wedged between the building and the oppressive outer wall. They had to assemble the stack in such a way that the entire force of the explosion was focused at the wall, a solid, concentrated punch of energy that would make them an exit.

At least, that was the plan. Their well-formulated goal was proving slower to enact than initially calculated. It was taking too long to move all the explosives into position fast enough. Any minute now someone might stumble onto them and ruin the whole attempt. But if the blast wasn’t set up carefully enough, then they wouldn’t make a strong enough force to break through the thick defences.

All these thoughts of failure and more were racing through Mason’s mind as he continued to gather the timer charges. This place supplied the armaments for the whole of Morada, defences for the war. As an extra F-you to the government, Kerrel was making sure to set an extra charge inside the armoury itself. This place would go up just like the wall.

Mabel, who’d been on lookout duty out the front, rushed in. “Time’s up, there’s a squad heading this way!”

Mason and Kerrel shared a panicked look and hastened for the rear door. Kerrel tossed in the timed detonator as they left, her last parting gift. Outside, the three other inmates were still working on the pyramid of explosives. “Move it scrubs, we haven’t got all day!”

All six of them now hurried to move crates and push the whole stack up against the wall. They heard raised voices approaching, barking commands. There was also a strange chirping noise – the vibrant bird-like mounts the honour guard used being employed like search dogs to lead them right to the potential escapees.

“Kerrel! We’ve gotta go, now!” Mabel yelled.

The Tengosan gestured for them all to stand as far away from their improvised bomb as possible. With luck there would be little back-blast, but it was better safe than sorry. Kerrel twisted the activator, setting off the small impact grenades. There was a loud popping noise and a small flash by the stack. There was a second of silence, then the entire thing went up in a huge burst.

The twins had to rush to cover their ears from the incredible sound. The ground shook as behind them the armoury roof exploded. Through the rubble they could see the prison guards backing away from a rapidly spreading fire. Smaller explosions continued to go off occasionally.

Behind the fading pall of smoke left by the main stack, Mason stared at the wall beyond and saw a pale night sky. “We’ve done it!” Kerrel cheered. They were so high that Mason couldn’t yet see the city below. “Now ladies, move it!”

They ran to the gaping hole, aware of the guards on their tail. Without even looking first, one of the convicts leapt through. Wind whipping their faces, the twins crowded round to look down. Mason saw all of Morada stretched out below them, with lights of red, white, and orange sparkling and lighting up the city. They were even high enough that he saw a wisp of cloud lazily float across the view. 

The free-falling convict slid against the near-vertical cliff-face, before landing on the awning atop a tower that leant against the great mountain. They all waited breathlessly for a moment before she moved again and waved up at them.

“Alright, next, go go go!” Kerrel pushed the next convict to the hole. She too leapt with no fear. But the third inmate resisted. “It’s the only way Teris, drop now!”

Scared of the drop, Teris leapt. However, with a horrifying realisation the twins saw that she’d misjudged her jump. She’d leapt too far. There was a sickening moment as they watched her tiny body hit the side of the tower and bounce off.

“NO!” Kerrel cried out. A light shone in their faces suddenly. A flying dropship was trained on their gap in the wall and getting closer with every second. Kerrel gripped Mabel’s forearm. “Farewell. See you on the other side, Pines.”

She dived headfirst with arms outstretched. It drew the gunship’s light momentarily as she fell. A quick burst of gunfire missed her by inches, but she managed to hit the tower awning softly. The three convicts descended into the tower, out of sight of the twins. The gunship’s light returned to cover the gap.

Mason backed away from the precipice. “The ship’s too close Mabel! We’ll be cut to ribbons if we try jumping now!”

Mabel leant over the edge as if judging the risk, then wisely stepped back too. “At least we got Kerrel and the others out. There’s some hope for this planet at least.” She turned to the armoury. The explosions had stopped but there was still a lot of smoke. Even through the pall she could see that guards were clambering through the wreckage towards them. The sound of the alarms had finally vanished too, with the prison riot across the Mountain presumably being quelled.

“We go down fighting? Right, Dipper?”

“I guess. Not how I wanted to go out, but it’ll be over quicker than waiting around in this prison for the rest of our lives.”

Raised rifles were pointed in their direction through the smoke. They were now surrounded on all sides. They heard shouted commands, and raised their fists to fight, a last futile attempt. Then the guards nearest them lowered their guns and stood to attention.

The twins were confused. Mabel assumed perhaps that the guards were anticipating some ‘big gun’ to come and finish them off. A figure emerged through the smoke, stepping calmly through the rubble. “Alright boys, fun’s over. You can put the guns down now.”

Grins broke out on Mason and Mabel’s faces. They looked to each other as if to confirm they were both hearing that same voice. Out of the smoke came a long mane of blonde hair, swaying in the wind. “I see you two got into the usual level of trouble without me.”

“Pacifica!” they both cried. They ran to her side and wrapped her up together in a big hug, the stress of the escape attempt melting away in her presence.

“I knew you’d come through!” Mason said, placing his hand on his wife’s cheek.

“Yeah, but not this soon!” Mabel said, impressed by the speed of Pacifica’s investigation.

“I have a little someone to thank for that.” Pacifica coughed into her fist. From behind her legs, Merrise peeked her head out cautiously.

Mason felt a warmth in his cheeks. Getting down on his knees, he put a hand on the girl’s shoulders. “Thank you Merrise. You’re our hero.” Then he embraced her too. At first she was overcome with surprise by how open he was being. She’d been on the streets so long she’d almost forgotten what real devotion and caring felt like. Slowly, she reached around and hugged him back.

They were all safe together again at last.

* * *

The twin’s exoneration process was almost as fast as their incarceration. With the red-faced warden arresting Teltoc as the real murderer and having to face the escape of three high-priority prisoners, he released the three humans, with their young Tengosan ally in tow. To avoid more fuss they were handed back their personal objects and hurried out the door.

After a well-deserved rest in a hotel in the city below, they gathered the next day in the market square at the centre of Morada. Despite all that happened in the last few days, life still went on as normal on the city streets. The sun still rose in the morning and set in the evening, and the war still raged on. Now there was something unquantifiably different, a sea change in the air that few could notice. The start of something. Perhaps a change. And perhaps for the better.

Mason and Mabel placed their hoppers on their hands and the silver suits unfolded around them. With journals safely stored again and the trio reunited, they were finally ready to continue their journey. Yet they were hesitant to leave right away.

The reason was obvious to all of them. Mason in particular. So they gathered at midday in the market, with Merrise by their side. “Girls, are you two ready to go?” They nodded and checked their hoppers. After nearly a week they’d obviously recharged and calibrated by now.

“Where will you go next?” Merrise asked, clearly awed by the idea of leaving Tengosa at all.

“It’s hard to tell,” Pacifica said. “Sometimes we end up in places that are quiet and peaceful…”

“Other times we get into super crazy adventures!” Mabel continued. “But we’re prepared for whatever comes next.”

“It sounds like a dream!” Merrise stared up at the sky, imagining the worlds suspended up there.

“It’s not without risks,” Mason said plainly, “but yeah. It is kinda cool. Seeing the wide spread of realities, touching strange new worlds, meeting amazing new people.”

“I wish I could come. I’m gonna miss you guys soooooo bad!” Merrise hugged Mason’s leg one last time, as if she could hold him here permanently.

She felt his hand on her shoulder. “Well, we’ve been talking about that actually. Without you we wouldn’t have been able to solve the case or get out of the Mountain. You saved us Merrise. Now we want to save you.”

“What are you saying?”

“Look at this place.” Mabel said, gesturing at the wide market. “You’ve got no home, no family or friends, no chances in life. Even if the war ended today, it would still take years for this city, hell, this whole planet, to recover.”

Pacifica took Merrise’s hand. “Take it from someone who escaped a shitty childhood. There’s always another way, if you only have people who believe in you.”

“_We_ believe in you, Merrise,” Mason said. “We want to help you, even if that means taking you with us away from Tengosa.”

“You want me to come with you?” Merrise struggled to take it all in. “Leave Tengosa and travel with you guys?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Mason soberly added. “We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to return to Tengosa. Our hoppers only go one-way. Even if- when… even when we complete our mission we probably won’t be able to get you back here. It’s your choice. Stay here on your own. Or take a risk and come with us to see the stars?”

“Well?” Mabel flashed a sly grin at the girl. “What do you say?”

She was overwhelmed by the possibilities and could barely get her words out. “I- I don’t know what to say.” When that drew sad looks from the trio, she corrected herself. “Of course I wanna go with you guys! You’re the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

“Well then…” Mason shook her tiny six-fingered hand. “Welcome aboard!”

Life went on in the Morada market. The bustling crowds barely noticed four people vanish from the planet. As the world continued to turn, the Pines were far away, heading off with their new friend to a new adventure.


	37. The Future

Pacifica stood in the long grass, letting the stalks wash over her and lightly tickle her legs. To her left was the cliff, and if she wished she could peer over and see the crashing waves hitting the rocks far below. Sunbeams broke free in shafts that pierced the ever-shifting clouds and illuminated this mysterious paradise.

The detail she noticed most of all was the timing of the wind. Not a constant breeze as she would expect, it flowed in bursts, like a heartbeat almost. The heartbeat of the multiverse, perhaps?

Still feeling hazy, she spun around, trying to pin down the cause of her sense of unease. Cloaked in dark fabrics astride the cliff, a hooded watcher stood, implacably considering the ocean. Pacifica had seen her many times before in her dreams. Staring out unfailingly at the far-off horizon. She’d tried to call to her, to reach out and finally make contact.

That always broke the spell, ending the dream and leaving her without the answers she so desperately sought. The figure was a mystery, a gnawing question that still left her wanting. She’d been driven to do so much by these visions, these nightly portents, but still hadn’t solved the fundamental issue: Why?

It couldn’t hurt to try again. As always, she cupped her hands and shouted into the wind, a futile, hopeless gesture. “I’m here. Just hear me! See me!”

Her heart froze in her chest when the figure’s head turned, inexorably slowly. She could hardly believe what she was seeing beneath the hood. The figure stared her down with seven penetrating eyes. Her unblinking gaze tunnelled right into her, as if she were seeing more than just Pacifica’s physical form. She could see into her thoughts and grasp at her core.

“We must speak.” The alien woman’s lips didn’t move, didn’t have to move. Pacifica could hear the intention in her mind.

Around her three more people phased into existence, bursting out of the ether and breaking the silence. The twins and Merrise looked at their new surroundings, with no concept that this place was somehow special. 

This was no dream. This was the moment she’d been waiting for.

“Wow, this place is pretty.” Mabel was gawking around as usual, looking forward to the possibility of a short respite in their travels. The sweep of the landscape was peaceful and inviting.

“Are all the places you visit like this?” Merrise asked. So far they were only a few short hops away from her home, and her wide eyes were studying every aspect of the new world, hungry to experience everything reality had to offer. She was uncritical, seeing it as simply a new frontier to enjoy. She hopped from one foot to the other. “It feels… lighter here. Do you guys know what I mean?”

“Hey yeah, I feel, like, fresher. Like I’m on a sugar rush or could run a marathon.” Mabel inhaled a deep breath. “It smells sweet, like lavender or candy. Or Pacifica’s shampoo, ha.”

She nudged her brother, who was deeply studying his suit’s info-screen and didn’t notice the jab. “I seem to be detecting a slightly higher concentration of O2 in the atmosphere. That’s why we feel more relaxed, we take in more oxygen with each breath, so it’s easier on our bodies.” He bounced up and down on the spot a few times. “I think the gravity may be slightly lower than on Earth too. Fascinating. Pacifica, what do you think? Pacifica?”

They all turned to follow her gaze towards the hooded figure by the cliff. She and Pacifica were still locked in a staring contest. Pacifica wouldn’t lose now. She’d come too far. “I’m going to talk to her.”

“Paz? What is it?”

Pacifica gave her husband a sympathetic smile. “Something I have to do on my own. You guys stay here. I’m going to get some answers.” 

She pressed her lips to his. He could almost feel the fear and anticipation radiating off her. “You just be careful Pacifica. We’ll be watching out for you.”

“C’mon Merrise,” Mabel said, taking her by the hand. “Let’s take a look around this place, huh?”

The girl smiled and skipped off, leading Mabel on a wild goose chase around the new world. Mason watched Pacifica stride off into the distance towards that cryptic watcher in black, wondering just what his wife was getting into.

* * *

“It is good that you have come. Welcome to Dimension 52. After so long, we can finally meet face to face.” The woman opened her arms wide, welcoming the traveller from beyond.

Closer now, Pacifica noted more features of the alien. She wore many small crystals, strung out along one of her hips. The robes that went down to her feet were made up of multiple layers of coloured fabrics, each a different material. What had looked like black from far away turned out to be a deep purple up close. Her pale pink skin, though lighter than Merrise’s, was still unearthly to Pacifica. And her eyes, her multitude of eyes perched upon her slender neck… Pacifica could hardly look away.

So many sleepless nights had been caused by those eyes, peering across time and space to reach her. Well enough was enough. “It’s time for an explanation I think. I want to know who you are.”

She took a deep bow. “As you so wish, Pacifica.”

Pacifica’s breath caught in her throat. “You know my name? Please.” She approached the tall woman, who kept staring down at her. “Please tell me what’s going on. All of it.” Tears started to push themselves through unexpectedly. “It’s been so long. I need to know!”

“And you shall. All in good time. First, an introduction. It will not surprise you to learn that I am an Oracle. I see things.” She waved out at the clouds and the sea, far away below the cliffs. “Those that died. Those that still live. And those that have not yet come into being, into that endless cycle of birth and rebirth. I am Jheselbraum the Unswerving. And there is much to speak of, Pacifica Pines.”

Despite longing for knowledge all this time, despite travelling countless light-years to get to this spot, she found herself completely unsure of what to ask first. The amount of choices available were paralysing. She pondered it, trying to think of a rational first step that would start to tie all the grand events together. Eventually she settled on a simple question. She avoided all talk of portals or burning or their enemies. She had one thing alone that needed answering first.

“Why… me?” The Oracle raised several eyebrows, though her mouth never broke from a straight line. “I mean, there are so many people, not just on Earth, but throughout reality. I mean, maybe you wanted someone with the means to actually travel here. That’d mean someone who knew about Ford’s portal, someone with the knowledge and experience to survive this far…”

“You’re answering your own question.”

“No!” she shouted in an angry outburst. “Why _me_?! Why am I the one who’s been visited by these dreams. Every night for the past year, if not longer! You could’ve reached out to anyone connected to the portal! Why not Mason, he lives for this stuff? Why not someone who already wanted to see a portal made, like the Open Eye? Hell, why not even Mabel, at least she was there when the portal opened the first time, at least she helped stop Bill Cipher! I’m nobody important.”

“Oh, Pacifica.” Jheselbraum rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. Her voice was at one time soothing while also sounding like it was echoing around and filling this whole dimension. “Listen to me closely. You are not unimportant. You will have a vital role to play in upcoming events and have already altered the weave of prophecy. You are neither an incidental bystander nor a chosen one to be placed above others. You are simply a catalyst. A vector through which certain things have been put into motion.”

Hearing the words from the sage, finally validating all of her visions, was almost too much for Pacifica. She’d spent her earliest years thinking she was on top of the world, back when she still followed her parents and revelled in the success their influence brought. Then she’d rebelled, and for many years after felt the exact opposite. She was worthless. She didn’t deserve to be happy. She felt an immense guilt for her pampered upbringing. Now this Oracle, this long-awaited guide, was telling her she did possess value. The profound sense of longing she’d held for so long could finally begin to evaporate. There was one more thing she needed to know, however.

“But why choose _me_ in particular? What makes me different from the twins?”

“Because your aspect is of the future.” Pacifica still looked confused, so the Oracle gestured at the twins, who were off in the distance with Merrise. Mabel was giving the alien girl a piggyback ride. “Mabel Pines dwells in the present. She is always concerned with the actions and reactions of those around her, constantly aware of the shifting nature of relationships. She takes pleasure in the moment, not caring to dwell on past mistakes or consider any true way forward. Flitting about, here to there, chasing that high and unburdened by considerations of change.”

Jheselbraum pointed now to Mason. He was nose deep in his journal, as usual, writing descriptions of the world as he walked around. “Mason Pines on the other hand resides in the past. Ever since he first uncovered Stanford’s journal his mind has been obsessed with solving mysteries long buried. He seeks to always increase his knowledge, as if he could somehow catalogue the entire history of a world. A fan of photography, of archiving slices of time to be preserved and remembered. What is his role as an astronomer if not to stare back in time? The ancient starlight, frozen in amber for millennia for him to observe.”

Thinking about what she was saying, Pacifica was starting to feel like she was being inaccurate. That wasn’t the sum of who the twins were, she had no right to box them in so rigidly. Before she could voice these concerns, Jheselbraum stared at her once again with all seven eyes.

“And you my child. You see the future. You’ve always dreamed of something more. A desire for more riches in your youth. A desire to be free as a teenager. A desire to have children, to foster new life. A desire to break out of the rut you were stuck in, to return to adventuring and leave behind the boredoms of mundanity. Always has your mind been on what you could attain, who you could be. This made you the ideal candidate to receive the dreams. Even look at your career: As an architect you plan for the future, envisioning new structures to be made into reality long after your initial sketches are completed.”

“No.” Pacifica’s simple refusal stunned the Oracle into silence. “You can’t pigeonhole me that easily. Or the others. We’re more complex than that. Mabel keeps her scrapbooks and I have a journal, just like Mason. He planned for our future life just as much as I did before we found out we couldn’t have kids! It was thinking about the past – about what kind of lives we’d had before – that made me leave home in the first place following these stupid dreams! Don’t think you know me, because I am not just someone’s vessel.”

She paced around, avoiding Jheselbraum’s multi-faceted gaze. She wasn’t going to be intimidated by her stare any longer. If she was so wise then she’d face her like an equal.

She turned back and was surprised by the Oracle’s expression. She was smirking back at her. “You’re as stubborn as I thought you’d be. I thought meeting you in person would go better than this. Perhaps we should start again.” She took another bow. This time Pacifica felt compelled to do the same. “What you say is true. I apologise, my words were chosen poorly. I meant no offence. I’m sorry, I practiced this encounter for so long.”

“Yeah. I know the feeling.”

“Now that this is sorted, I presume you have further questions. Speak, and I shall answer as best as I can. No doubt you have need to seek my counsel. It has taken much longer to establish this confluence than I would have preferred, but you are here now. That is all that matters.

“First tell me about yourself. Who you are. You said you were an Oracle? You predict the future then?”

“In the original Latin, the word Oracle simply means ‘to speak’.”

“You’re sounding like Bokamoso.”

“Ah yes. The Pentagram with his third eye could be considered closer to myself than many other of the Eponymous.”

“Can you start talking sense, lady?” Pacifica crossed her arms. “I’ve travelled millions of light-years at great expense. I’m not about to be exposited at in flowery riddles. Talk to me normally.”

Jheselbraum gave a curt nod, acknowledging her failure to relate. “You might call me an interpreter or translator. I speak for one who lacks the ability.” She turned back to face the sea. Pacifica followed her line of sight all the way to the horizon, wondering what it was she was searching for. Perhaps she too was simply looking for answers of her own. “A long time ago there was a little girl, much like your Tengosan friend Merrise. She used to dream of far-off worlds, of mystic significance and freedom. Then something came to her world. A being of pure evil. This evil took the form of a one-eyed triangle in a top hat.”

“Bill Cipher,” Pacifica stated.

“I know you have encountered him before. You’ve seen the evil he committed. Not just on Earth, but in countless realms.”

“And your world was one of his victims?”

“Perhaps…” The Oracle turned away from the sea and waved a hand around at the swaying grass. “Or perhaps I have always lived in this place, a resident of Dimension 52 since before memory began. I remember growing up as a little boy in the orphanage of the monks of infinite piety, out beyond the Alphaiga Rim. Maybe I sprung, fully formed one day, out of the mind of a particularly gifted author. Or maybe I was a disgraced princess, running from a crime I didn’t commit. I remember many pasts. All of them are true and all of them are contradictory.”

“Or you’re just lying.” Pacifica didn’t have time for wishy-washy symbolism or evasiveness. The facts were what mattered. 

“Regardless, my specific origins are not important. Cipher was important, once. He risked destroying so much. And I was set against him, my duty was to preserve the balance he would upset. Look into my eye.”

Six of the Oracle’s eyes closed, leaving only a single one to continue to stare. Like a window, Pacifica saw images behind the sclera. Events replayed themselves, and she saw a grey-haired man she recognised being nursed to health.

“I encountered Stanford Pines many years ago. I brought him here to this place so he might heal, and to reveal to him secrets that would aid him in the goal of vanquishing Bill Cipher, a threat so great and terrible that all were threatened if he was not stopped.”

Pacifica had to turn away as the image in her eye showed Ford’s head being operated on by the Oracle. “Mace always did say his uncle had a metal plate in his head. Guess he wasn’t just joking around.”

Jheselbraum’s other eyes opened as the recap ended. “I sent Stanford on his way and left him with hope. In the end, my judgement was correct. Were it not for him, Cipher would never have fallen.”

“Ok, but all that was in the past. I hate myself for saying this, but what about the future? What about the things I’ve been seeing? What about the signal, or that strange cloud covering the Big Dipper, or the a-mortals? What does it all mean?”

“For that, I believe we must commune with one greater than I. Take my hand.”

She hesitated before accepting. “You’re not going to avoid my questions again, are you? I need to figure this out. For myself. For my friends and family.”

“All you seek shall be revealed.”

She gulped, then gripped onto the Oracle’s offered hand. Into the unknown, she thought.

The two them began to rise up into the air. As they continued to fly high above the rolling plains, Pacifica saw in the distance a palace, perched atop a tall hill. Then it was obscured as they flew into the sky, to the very edge of the atmosphere. She let go of Jheselbraum’s hand, and they floated in place among the wispy clouds.

Pacifica let the cool wind blow over her, breathing deep and enjoying the feeling of weightlessness.

“Do you know what an axolotl is?” Jheselbraum looked concerned, searching there and about through the clouds.

“Excuse me? They’re like little lizards, you get them in pet shops. I fail to see the relevance.”

“You will… give it time. Even on your world, axolotls express what is called ‘neoteny’. Unlike other similar species, when they grow older they do not undergo metamorphosis. There is no chrysalis or butterfly for these caterpillars. They remain in a constant state throughout their lives. Because of this remarkable fact, it means that they can also regenerate damaged tissue. They have the largest genome of any animal creature on Earth. All that extra genetic information is used for far more than most would believe.”

“Ugh, this isn’t helping at all. You’re just barfing facts at me! I don’t care about dumb lizards. I’m tired of the metaphors! Give me something real!”

A deep moan resonated through the clouds. Pacifica’s silver pendant began to vibrate oddly, shaking instead of serenely spinning on her neck as it usually did. Floating up here unprotected, she suddenly felt vulnerable. A shadow shifted behind a nearby cloud, moving closer. “There’s something big over there! What’s going on?”

Jheselbraum silently contemplated the approaching shape. Pacifica tensed, then the creature’s head burst through the cloud.

“Oh.” She’d been expecting something more… symbolic. Instead, a giant axolotl was looking down at her with a big lopsided grin. A small red tongue poked playfully out, and the animal gave a contended purr. “Well,” Pacifica said, genuinely dumbfounded. “That’s one big frilly boy.”

* * *

Many hours had passed, and Mabel was getting bored. Their hoppers had recharged ages ago and there was little to interest her on this open plain. With Mason and Merrise she’d hiked over to look at the nearby hill-top castle, but there was no obvious entrance. A castle with no door. Since they’d seen Pacifica and the Oracle fly off into the sky, she guessed that maybe you had to get in through the roof.

Other than that mild diversion, not much had happened. Now her brother was showing Journal 7 to Merrise. After all the outlandish places they’d visited in the last few months its pages were practically fit to bursting. He’d have to move on to a new book soon.

Like an angel descending from the heavens, Mabel finally saw Pacifica breaching down through the cloud layer, sans her hooded acquaintance. Her hair was damp, and she was clutching her pink llama journal, writing hurried notes and not taking her eyes off the page.

Mabel scrambled to her feet and ran over to her, leaving her brother and Merrise sitting in the long grass. She didn’t want to interrupt their flow. When she reached Pacifica, she took a long bow, lowering most of her body.

“And lo, Pacifica hath come down from the mountain bearing knowledge. Tell us, oh herald, what wisdom the gods shared with you.” Pacifica ignored her, continuing to write her notes. Mabel craned her neck over to see the journal’s page. There was a sketch of the hooded woman, a woman with multiple eyes. “What? No ‘you’re such a goof Mabel’, or ‘don’t be so hammy’, or ‘this is serious business’?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry, I was completely elsewhere.” Broken out of a spell, she slammed the book shut. “What did you say?”

“Oh, it… it doesn’t matter. The news is that bad?”

“Not bad, just… it’s a lot to take in.” 

“Hey, as long as it’s not my fault the world is ending this time it’s fine by me.”

Pacifica looked back up to the clouds above. “Our friend won’t be down for a while. She’s communing with our host.”

“Our host?”

“Long story. I’ll tell you everything I learnt soon; I promise.” She looked for Mason across the grasslands, settling on his quiet reading with Merrise. “Those two gonna be long?”

“He’s finally explaining how we started travelling the multiverse. You know, all the stuff with the portal, your dreams. I’m guessing she probably won’t be able to understand much of what you’re about to tell us without knowing all that basic junk, right?”

Pacifica absent-mindedly nodded, still stewing over all she’d learnt. “She’s a good kid, Merrise. She’s picked up this stuff really quickly.”

“You’ll make good parents.” Mabel meant it partly in jest, expecting Pacifica to rebuff her with another ‘be serious’, or ‘don’t joke about that stuff’.

Instead she just said a casual, “Maybe.”

Mabel studied her friend again. In the absence of her journal she was now fiddling with her Pine Tree pendant. Anything to occupy herself. But it wasn’t stress this time. It was more like anticipation, like Pacifica couldn’t wait to tell them the whole story.

Seeing a small window of opportunity, Mabel gestured for Pacifica to talk to her more privately. “Hey, you got a second, Paz? I wanna ask you something. Just between us, girls only, you know?”

“Ok,” Pacifica said cautiously. “If this is gonna be about advice for whatever weird relationships you’ve got going on with Eli or Zera then I’m not really equipped-“

“It’s not that, silly.” She wished she now had something to fiddle with too, to keep her hands still. “There’s one thing I really wanna know. Once we’re done with all this travelling, with whatever we find at the end… what are you gonna do after all of this?

Pacifica looked at her critically. “You say that like we’ll definitely get back. There’s still a lot in our way.”

“No, but, seriously. Once all that junk is behind us, when we’re back on Terra Firma, what will you do? Move back to Trenton? Go back to that boring architect job?”

“I… haven’t thought about it much. Been too busy thinking about the more immediate… future.” Her eyes seemed to glaze over for moment, lost in a stray thought.

“But there are a lot of options. You don’t have to go back to the way things were before. You could go out there, living your dream life! Be a kickass paranormal investigator with the man of your dreams. Nerd explorers!”

Pacifica lightly chuckled. “I think after all this I’ll give the adventuring a rest, at least for a while. I think a break would be good for keeping my stress to a minimum, if nothing else.”

“Oh, sure, sure…”

“How about you? Back to reshaping the world, doing good deeds and being an all-around troublemaker?”

“Ha, you know me. There’s so much back on Earth I could still do. Corruption to expose, people who are suffering.”

“Maybe someday me and Mason could come and help out, support your protests or whatever.”

“You really mean that?!” Mabel said, with a bit too much excitement.

“Of course. I know why you wanted to talk about this.” Mabel’s cheeks reddened. “And you don’t have to worry about a thing. Don’t think we’ll forget about you, sister. We haven’t gone through all this just to go back to the awful way things were.”

“You’re serious? You and Dipper won’t go back into ‘isolation mode’ again?” Pacifica put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gave the sincerest nod she could muster. Overjoyed, Mabel picked her up in hug and spun around. “Eeh! You’re the best, Pacifica!”

“I know, I know, flattery will get you everywhere,” she said, trying to ease out of the death-grip. “No-one could ever ignore you, Mabel.”

“You wanna know something funny. When we were all together – the three of us I mean, back when things were good – I always used to feel like people overlooked me. They were usually more distracted by…”

“By what?”

“By… you.” This hit Pacifica like a ton of bricks. Mabel continued to ramble. “You look gorgeous, that luscious hair, perfect poise. Anyone would want to be with you. Next to that I always felt kinda plain.”

Pacifica put an immediate end to any self-doubt Mabel was expressing, facing her in the eye directly. “Plain? You? The girl with tattoos you could see a mile off? Who wears glitter in her hair and vibrant sweaters in the height of summer? You don’t need any help standing out.”

“Aw, I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said.”

“Yeah, well don’t get used to it. Next thing I have to say won’t be so pretty.” Mason and Merrise were finally heading over the ridge towards them, done with whatever lecture her husband had been giving. As they approached, Pacifica called out to the whole group. “Buckle up guys. There’s a lot to get through.”

* * *

“I’m gonna sound a lot like Mabel here, but this thing is adorable.”

Still suspended in the sky, Pacifica ran a hand along the creature’s wide forehead. It purred contentedly, responding warmly to her touch. She was reminded of the squid-whales, a large bulk drifting through the clouds. This time at least she didn’t have to worry about running out of air. The only small concern she had was that her silver pendant was reacting very strangely. It would hover towards the Axolotl before recoiling back, like a magnet near an opposite pole.

“You don’t happen to have a giant llama floating around up here too, do you?”

Jheselbraum, minding the nearby red fronds, tickled behind the Axolotl’s ear, eliciting a small moan of approval. “Axolotl: from the Nahuatl words for ‘water’ and ‘servant’. So too do we here serve the ever-shifting waters of fate. It is my duty and pleasure to act as his herald.”

“So this ‘thing’, this space Axolotl… it can see the future?” The Axolotl, with its blank goofy eyes seemed more huggable than knowledgeable. Judging from how Jheselbraum reacted to touching its milky white skin – closing her eyes in concentration and rubbing her hand in strange patterns – she could believe there was more than meets the eye. “Let me get this straight then. You interpret what the Axolotl sees, or senses, or dreams about. You turn the abstract concepts into words. That’s how you knew all about us and the portal?”

“Indeed. I was made aware of the looming threat some time ago and sought to act. To bring you here.”

“So that green cloud, the one that covered the Big Dipper… that was you?”

“I sent the cloud to spur you on. I thought the dreams I transmitted would be enough, but the vastness between us left them garbled. It was too difficult for us to fully communicate. By manipulating the weave to create something trivial such as that cloud of gas, I was able to get your attention enough to finally start you down the path to reach this point.”

Pacifica threw her arms wide. “You’ve got me here now. Time to talk then.” She thought of her dreams, of the vague symbols and signs she’d struggled to interpret up ‘til now. The wall of painted Zodiac symbols, the worlds on fire, the snake eating its own tail. Mysteries without clear answers. Then there were the a-mortals, who’d seen some of the same signs as she had.

“They have seen fragments, yes. They are a blight wherever they crop up.”

“Could you not do that whole mind reading thing?” Pacifica said, annoyed at the lack of privacy. “It’s a bit of an ethical grey area for me.”

“I’ll try to keep it to a minimum.”

Ignoring the implications of her psychic friend, she turned back to the questions at hand. “Alright. So, first there's that signal, the one the Society and a-mortals detected. The one we’re hunting for to try and stop them from… well, we don’t know. Do you about the a-mortals much?”

“Oh, of old. Life is an interesting quirk of matter. The drive to reproduce, to change the worlds around itself. The a-mortals are a perversion of that nature. Instead of seeking to contribute and improve things they retreat inwards, thinking only of themselves. On Earth and beyond they often seek to band together against regular mortals. Those from Earth though have gone too far this time. That is why I called you here.”

She remembered Selchen’s collection, the Tool Maker’s hoarding of components, Gabriel Crane’s bid to find a portal part in Venice. It all pointed to an obvious conclusion. “They wanted to build their own portal. To find this signal too?”

“Not at first. I suspect they initially simply wanted to accrue more power. Only later did they realise the signal was from one of their own.”

“The signal is coming from an a-mortal? So they want to find it too. What for though? We still have no idea what the signal is.”

“I admit my grasp on that aspect is… hazy.” Jheselbraum seemed pained as she massaged the creature more intensely. “The Axolotl can perceive many things, but the centre-point of that signal is still obscured to him. But he does know that it is linked inextricably to the a-mortals.”

“Ok, so we’ll still need to find that out for ourselves.” Pacifica hadn’t expected their journey onwards through the multiverse would ever realistically end here and now. “What about the other things I’ve seen? All that fire, the burning… horrible things.”

The Oracle chuckled dryly. “That is the secret of the a-mortals. You know of their fear of course: Their paradoxical terror of death. They cling to life so hard that they cannot imagine a world where they too eventually die. In truth there are very few immortal beings. Most fall into the a-mortal category. Able to live forever except for external causes of death. But every environment eventually collapses. Entropy is inevitable.”

“And so they hide away in caves and stay out of trouble. Hetepheres had her little pyramid sanctuary. I guess most of the others did too. ‘Even the sun will burn out eventually’, that’s what Wendy told me. So if they’re acting on that fear… does that mean something’s coming that might cause the end? Another apocalypse, like Cipher?”

“Not… quite…” For someone who’d been freely dishing out knowledge to Pacifica ever since she’d arrived, Jheselbraum was now suddenly acting cagey. Her seven eyes avoided Pacifica’s gaze. “It is the dirty secret they all try to conceal. The ones in this union at least.”

“Yes, and the secret is?” Around them the clouds became decidedly unsettled. The sky darkened, and a low rumble of thunder off in the distance. To Pacifica’s great dismay, it started raining as well.

Jheselbraum and the Axolotl didn’t seem to mind the changes, remaining in their deep communion. But as Pacifica watched the shadowed arena of clouds surrounding them, she started seeing shapes forming from the puffy masses. Far off, a column of cloud spun around, forming a giant ouroboros of water vapour. A bolt of lightning struck the snake, splitting its body and breaking the loop.

In a few moments, the whole show was over. The eerie calm returned, and the fluffy pink clouds quickly settled. But Pacifica thought she’d gleamed something from the display. Piecing it together with everything she knew from her experience and her dreams, she dared to slowly voice her thoughts out loud.

“The a-mortals aren’t afraid because the world is ending or something like that. They’re so afraid of dying that they want to – and I almost can’t believe this – they want to destroy the world themselves?” Jheselbraum looked once more to the distance, but gave a quick nod of her head nonetheless. “They fear death so much that they’ve circled round to wanting to take everyone else with them? Using the portal?” Another simple nod from the Oracle. “Oh my…”

“I am sorry Pacifica. This information is hard to take, I know.” Like a deep mantra once learnt by heart, Jheselbraum continued. “Life is not always a gift. Their long existence has poisoned all reason from their minds. They see the final end of all life as inevitable already. When you’re so scared of that final day, it’s almost a relief to know that you will all go down together. That no-one will outlive you or possess something you cannot.”

“You say that like you know from personal experience.” Jheselbraum fixed her with a solid gaze. “Wait, you don’t mean…”

“The Axolotl has existed for countless eons. But he will not always do so.” The Oracle tugged down her hood, and Pacifica gasped at what she saw.

Growing out of the side of her round head were multiple red strands, just like the fronds on the Axolotl. “You’re becoming like him!”

“I am his chosen. It is my duty to carry out his will. This has its toll. He will not last forever. The day will come when I shall become like him, morphing over thousands of years. I will mantle his aspect and take my place in his stead.”

“Not all your knowledge comes from the Axolotl, does it. You’re an a-mortal too, aren’t you,” Pacifica stated bluntly.

“Yes. Not all of us have the same goals as that group from Earth. Some live peaceful lives. But even I know the gnawing fear of my end. I chose to turn away from self-serving desire for more power or time. I use my abilities to cultivate and embrace life, no matter how fleeting. Whether out in the reaches of space or on worlds like yours.”

“So that’s why you needed us. To give the rest of life a chance against their plans. Is that something to do with the Zodiac then? It was going to stop the end of the world before. At least, until Stan fucked it up with his grammar or whatever was going on with him.”

“The Eponymous. There is much I could say on that, but time is brief. For now, I say only that it has a role to play in the coming events. The wheel of ten is currently broken, yes, but it will not be long before its power comes into play.”

“Figures you can’t give me all the answers. What now then? Do you have some way to fight the other a-mortals?” Pacifica felt herself start to drop. She was descending back down through the clouds to the plain below. “Wait, what’s happening?”

“I am not all-powerful, Pacifica Pines.” Jheselbraum’s voice was louder than ever before now, echoing around the clouds like an old-testament god. “I can’t shoot lasers from my eyes or control the minds of men. My abilities are strictly metaphysical. I divine meaning and peer into the heretofore, but I cannot alter things myself. Action must rest on the shoulders of others I inspire.”

“You can’t leave this to us! We’re just amateurs, a bunch of ‘adventurers’ who don’t know anything.” She tried to struggle powerlessly against the downwards pull. “We can’t stop this on our own!”

“Nor will you be.” Pacifica stared desperately up at Jheselbraum. The Oracle’s eyes were now blank, pupil-less. The Axolotl was speaking directly through her now. “When the Eponymous gather I shall be with you. I send my herald as an ally, to guide your course. She will guide you onwards, when the time is right.”

* * *

Huddled around a bonfire like ancient humankind, Mason watched the flickering light dance and twirl up into the sky. The rich ambience of this world was still in effect, making him feel ten years younger. Yet his mind was weighed down by troubled thoughts. At his side was Pacifica, the bearer of what could only be described as ‘bad news’.

“The end of everything, huh?”

“Yep. All gone. That’s what she said. Or he said. Wasn’t quite sure whether I was talking to the monkey or the organ grinder at certain points.”

“Wow…” There wasn’t much else to say than that. They’d all heard Pacifica’s account.

He poked at the fire, watching the sparks spurt up and die in seconds. He didn’t think he could muster the energy to do much more. Around them the landscape of Dimension 52 was almost invisible. The vast grasslands were no different from the shifting waves of the distant sea, obscured from sight. The darkness all around covered them like a pall.

Except for one firefly of light, weaving in and out of the long grass. Mabel had decided to sort through the recent revelations the only way she knew how: By playing hide and seek with Merrise. The game had quickly devolved into them just chasing one another, and over the plains he could hear their giggles from time to time.

It was a distraction, that was clear, but maybe that was needed. A way to process, even if it was a slow one. He wondered how much of their mission Merrise had really taken in. It was a lot for her to handle in such a short timeframe since leaving everything she’d ever known. Was it right for them to push so much on her?

“Are you alright, Mason?” Pacifica had noticed his reserved silence. “I mean, really alright? We can take as much time as we need to talk.”

“There’s a lot riding on this, Paz. It’s not just us, if we fail… it’s not only the Earth, not even our own universe. Whole realities are resting on our shoulders. You don’t seem to be that worried about it.”

“I’ve had time to prepare, I guess. All that time, dreaming of right here, right now. I never expected it to be easy. There’s more to it though, isn’t there?” She snuggled up closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder and joining the contemplation of the fire.

“Can’t hide anything from you.” His smile was fleeting as he turned back to the matter at hand. “I know you and Mabel are committed one hundred percent. We’re going into dangerous territory by following this signal but trying to convince you two to stop now would be like trying to turn back the tides.” He shuffled awkwardly on the ground. “Do you think I’m being negligent by letting Merrise come with us?”

Pacifica had expected this for some time now. At first she’d been astonished by how quickly Mason had put his trust into the girl. But after spending her own time in her presence she could see why. Merrise was clever and tough and resourceful. But she was also alone, adrift without purpose or support.

“I don’t know, Mason. She’s not much younger than we were when we first started getting in adventures and solving mysteries. When Stan told you to stop going on adventures, did you listen?”

“But she’s still only a kid. She needs guidance, people to look after her. And 9 is a lot different than 12.”

“I know right,” Pacifica replied in her most irreverent tone, “she’s not even close to being _technically_ a teen.”

She tried to tickle him, but he gripped her hands. “I’m serious. If there’s a chance she could get hurt, then it’s my… our responsibility to keep her from harm.”

Pacifica knelt over her husband, gripping both wrists. Then she fixed him with an intense stare, one more piercing than any she’d given before. It almost made Mason able to picture how it had felt to stare too long into Jheselbraum’s eyes, so fiery was the passion behind it. “Mason Pines. You are the worst person to be talking about that.”

“Ouch, rude. Go on.”

“Ever since you were a scruffy little boy-“

“Scruffy?”

“Don’t interrupt.” She wriggled closer to him, straddling his lap and tucking herself close to his chest. “Even back then, when you would get lost in the woods chasing fairies, you were a rulebreaker. You’re the guy who at 12 years old fought a demon triangle with no adult supervision. Who spent his teens running out in the dead of night with his sister discovering new species and fighting monsters. Who certainly broke all of my parents’ rules. Why do you think I married you? And you want to talk about being ‘responsible’?”

He gripped her waist, moving to lift her off. “We’re not kids anymore, Paz.”

“Pfft, that’s exactly what Valentino said.” She lightly touched his hands, staying on top of him and leaning in so their faces were nearly touching. “I think Mabel has the better idea. What’s the point in being grown up if you don’t get to live your life your own way?”

She pressed her body up against his, then kissed him softly on the lips.

A dumb grin crept onto Mason’s face. He wasn’t worried about Merrise anymore. “Well, when you put it like that.” He placed a flurry of kisses all along her face and neck, making her giggle, innocent and happy as she hadn’t been in so, so long.

Pacifica craned her neck skywards; towards the many gaps she could make out between the clouds. “Tell me about the stars, Ursus. Like you used to do back home.”

He gave a weak laugh. “I don’t actually know any of these stars. But if you look just here…” He picked his wife up, legs either side of his waist, and carried her gently away from the light of the fire. She looked up at his face and he raised his eyelids, gesturing upwards at his birthmark. “There is one constellation I think you might recognise.”

“Oh, smooth.” They made out some more, with Mason’s hands firmly clasping her rear while her own hands hungrily roved over his body. They shouldn’t be so relaxed. They should have been terrified for the coming existential dread of whatever their enemies were planning to bring about the end. Instead it gave them a heady ecstasy, like all that was quarantined away and separate, while they remined here in the calm before the storm.

Mason set Pacifica down some way from the fire. Mabel’s flickering torchlight was well out of sight now. “I don’t know if I’m feeling woozy cause this dimension is so easy on our bodies, but I’m feeling a certain tingling in a certain body part.” Pacifica suddenly looked apprehensive for the first time that night. Her hand ran down to her lower stomach, almost unconsciously. “Paz? Is something wrong?”

“No, not wrong. I’m just… wondering. Now come here.” She threw her hands around his head and pulled him down to lie in the long grass beside her. “I love you Mace. Even with your bad boy buzzcut.” She playfully ran an explorative hand over his bristly scalp.

“Ugh, I know. It’ll grow back eventually.”

“Hmm, until then I’ll just have to make do. Against the end of everything what else can you do but live in the moment? I get the feeling we won’t get another chance to rest like this again.”

The two of them didn’t fall asleep until long into the night, taking the time to properly enjoy each other’s company as they hadn’t since setting off from Gravity Falls weeks before. Their cries of pleasure were swallowed by the empty darkness around them. When sleep finally came, it was wrapped together in bliss.

* * *

Pacifica opened her eyes to see her husband’s loving face. She moved in closer to give him a morning kiss. “Mmm, hope you slept well baby.”

“Woah, not so close Paz! No touchy touchy like that!”

She jolted away, realising her mistake and blushing like a ripe tomato. Mistaking _Mabel’s_ face for her husband’s would certainly go down in the books as one her most embarrassing moments. The feeling was compounded when she remembered that both Mason and she had fallen asleep stark naked the night before. Now the open plain left very little to the imagination.

She nudged Mason awake, despite his sleepy protests involving kissing the air and mumbling that he was ready for round two. Once the wash of shame had faded and they were both dressed and suited up, they headed over to where Mabel was waiting with Merrise by her side.

“I see you two slept well.” She didn’t even need to wink to make them blush more. A small pack was slung over her shoulder. “Got some provisions, found some local food, berries and the like. Don’t worry, it’s good to eat. Everything in this dimension seems helpful in some way.”

“Are we moving on now, guys?” Merrise asked. “Like you said: Recharge, Recalibrate, time to hop!”

“Good work remembering,“ Mason said, glad that Mabel seemed to have shielded the girl from their indecent behaviour. “And we are ready to go. But I gather things are little different on this world.”

Approaching them from the direction of the hilltop castle was Jheselbraum, who’d finally descended from her engagement with the Axolotl. “You have everything you need?”

“We travel lightly,” Mason explained. “We carry all our essentials in our packs. Why? Worried we’ll leave something behind and tarnish the place?”

“I simply wouldn’t want you to forget anything vital. You are already prepared to move on? You may stay and consult if you have need before leaving this place.”

The trio shared a joint glance, then Mabel turned to the Oracle. “Thanks, but we’re ready to go. No time like the present to mess up some a-mortal plans.”

Beneath her hood, Jheselbraum grinned. “Clearly I underestimated your resolve. I think it’s time I saw to it that my peers are put back into line.”

“Wait,” Pacifica said. “You want to come with us? I thought you didn’t ‘get engaged’ directly? Action and inaction and all that jazz you told me.”

“Well, I thought about it last night. And after much debate with the Axolotl I thought: Why not? Why not give what aid I can. I can do more by your side than drifting in the clouds.”

“Yay, another tagalong like me!” Merrise ran to the Oracle’s side, leaping up to grab her hand. Though Jheselbraum utterly dwarfed the small child, she nevertheless, bent over and held hands with the six-fingered girl, smiling enthusiastically.

“Welcome aboard then, I guess.” Mason prepared his hopper, upping the capacity once again so they could transport another new passenger. “It’ll add to our risk with each hop. Greater chance of inter-portal collisions or translation error. But hey, what was it you said about responsibility last night, Paz?”

Pacifica raised her own hopper. In her mind she said goodbye to Dimension 52, this oddly beautiful realm that felt both calm and stagnant, knowing it was one more place she’d never return to. “We’ve come this far. One more small risk won’t hurt.”


	38. The Wall

At the edge of the silent city there was a brief burst of sound before the gentle quiet returned. But now a new group of travellers had arrived in the city. As soon as the echo of their materialisation had faded, Pacifica ran to the side of the road and began retching on the ground.

“Woah, Pacifica!” Mason ran to her side, putting a hand on her back to support her as she vomited up the contents of their last meal onto a new planet’s sidewalk. “Easy now, you’ll adjust in a moment.”

“Ugh, this is the absolute worst. I don’t understand why the trips have been getting rougher these last few days. I’d almost prefer to have the dreams back instead.”

“It’s probably the increased frequency of our hops. The closer we get to the signal the less we have to travel each time, so we can recharge faster.”

“Then why haven’t any of you guys thrown up... oh god, it’s coming again.”

Though Mason tried to avoid watching, the smell was unmissable however much he tried to wince and ignore it.

Across the concourse, Mabel left the lovebirds to their new daily ritual. Pacifica’s upset stomach had been a fixture regular ever since they’d left Dimension 52 about a week ago. She stared up at their new surroundings instead. They were on a long central street, tall silver skyscrapers boxing them in on either side. Swooping roadways crisscrossed the upper levels of the city high above them.

However, there was no sign of any people whatsoever. Wherever they’d ended up was unoccupied. “Come on Merrise, Big J, let’s have a look around.”

Her two alien companions fell into lockstep behind her. Merrise’s head turned here and there, dazzled by the futuristic mausoleum that was this empty city. “Do you think Pacifica’s alright?”

“I’m sure she’s fine buddy, Paz is the toughest one of all of us! She’s just under the weather.”

“Her symptoms are undeniable,” Jheselbraum added. “I wonder what the cause is.”

“I thought you knew everything?” Mabel asked, still unclear on the Oracle’s true limits. Pacifica had spent a long time conversing with her alone, leaving both twins with less grasp on who she really was.

“My vision has been limited as we’ve progressed onwards. The Axolotl knows much but has an asymptotic relationship with the source of this signal.”

“An ass-what?”

Jheselbraum sighed. “It means the closer his sight turns towards it, the less detail he can glean.”

“Right, gotcha. So you’re as clueless as us mortals now.”

“Hey, yeah!” Merrise skipped around the hem of Jheselbraum’s robes, singing a repetitive chant. “One of us! One of us!”

Mabel joined in, playfully teasing their new stuck up guide as she’d used to do with Pacifica when they were kids. Their little tease was short-lived however, as the sound of deep groaning echoed all around the open street. They all halted, and Merrise clutched Jheselbraum for protection.

“Relax.” The Oracle placed a calm hand on the girl’s shoulder, pointing up at the nearest derelict tower. “It’s simply the wind, amplified by these empty structures. The creak of aged metal, that’s all.”

“Yeah, nothing to worry about,” Mabel said. Then she added, “Except maybe where all the people who built these buildings have gone,” which made Merrise audibly gulp.

They moved down the street slower than before, cautiously checking the fronts of each tower as they passed. Mabel glimpsed odd technology within; most likely space-age and covered in shiny chrome originally, there was now a thick layer of dust over everything. All the buildings seemed perfectly intact. It was like something had driven the populace out one day.

Mabel had seen a lot of strange worlds in the last few months, but silence on this scale was never a good thing. It was like wandering the ruins of Pripyat in Russia, abandoned after the Chernobyl incident. A whole city left to waste.

It was also the kind of city she could picture being the ideal vision of the Society of the Open Eye. Their perfect portal-powered utopia; realised before her eyes. The people who’d built it were obviously skilled at construction and efficient planners. Whatever scared the occupants away wouldn’t have done so without very good reason.

The three of them reached the end of the wide street, which opened onto a public square at its terminus. Rising up in layered terraces were open spaces, that looked to Mabel like they were once part of a park of some kind. There were decaying benches surrounding dry fountains, and patches of brown grass everywhere. Picturing it as it once was, a multi-layered hanging garden, Mabel was sad that this place had reduced to such a state.

To the left and right of the crossroads were simply more long streets lined with buildings, as empty as before. “Come on, this place is dead.” Mabel was about to turn and lead them back down the street to the others, when Merrise suddenly called out and pointed into the distance.

“Wait! Look at that! I don’t believe it!”

Mabel didn’t know what she was supposed to be seeing at first. Beyond the park there were a few more towers, then it opened out onto wild countryside. A plain of grey dust seemingly stretched out to the horizon, under a cloudy sky that matched the monochrome palette.

She realised at last that there wasn’t a simple divide between land and sky. In between was something she hadn’t even perceived. The scale of it was too grand for her to comprehend as part of the landscape, merging imperceptibly as part of the grey overcast sky.

Extending higher than the tallest skyscraper in the city was a wall; a monolith that touched the sky. In one direction it carried on, a barrier that went on as far as she could see. In the opposite, impossibly, it met _another_ great wall, forming a deep V-shaped valley that the whole city was nestled in.

She checked down one of the side streets, seeing that both parts of the wall went off in different directions with no breaks. They were at the meeting point of two vast blockades they couldn’t hope to surmount. The dull grey of the metal wall didn’t sparkle and shine as the buildings of the city did, despite the evident wear and tear on them. It was just monotonous. There wasn’t a single visible seam or rivet. Even where the two walls met, the join was smooth and not put together by any obvious craft. It was one single, unbroken piece of metal.

Against the sight of it, Mabel, Merrise, and Jheselbraum were as ants. None of them said a word, still in awe. Struggling to wonder why anyone would need such a heady magnitude of defence to protect themselves, she turned back, planning to call down the street and alert Mason and Pacifica. 

Her words died on her lips when she saw the pair weren’t alone any longer.

* * *

Still back where they’d arrived in the city, Mason had grabbed a bottle of water from his pack and Pacifica was now drinking greedily. “I hate being sick.”

Mason looked ruefully over at the puddle of gross vomit they’d be leaving behind in this otherwise empty street. Maybe it was a good thing there had been no-one around. “It’ll pass, Pacifica, I’m sure.”

“Easy for you to say when I’m the only one who’s been affected. Every time we jump it’s like my insides are churning.” She looked around at the hollow towers and felt another gust of powerful wind sweep through the nearest, making her shiver. “How long’s the recharge going to take? I don’t relish spending a night camped out in these ruins.”

“I’ll check for you.” He fiddled with the hopper on his palm, then snuggled up beside Pacifica. “Hey, at least you could say this isn’t our worst vacation.”

“What do you mean?”

He started chuckling to himself at the memory. “Remember that hotel we stayed in during that weekend in Helsinki?”

A grin crept onto Pacifica’s lips, breaking her out of her sour mood. “Oh my god, that place was so cold! The worst insulation I’ve ever seen. They should have fired whoever designed the building.”

“And you remember the elevator shaft-“

“Opened right onto the pool!”

“I’ll never forget your face when you fell in, fully dressed for a night on the town.”

“It totally ruined that dress.” They both laughed at the shared recollection from half a decade prior. “That’s what we should do when all this is over. A rest. A chance to go somewhere with no abnormal goings-on, nothing trying to kill us, no grand conspiracies.”

“Well we can get back to that as soon as we finish this mission.” He raised his hopper and gave a sympathetic grin. “Ready to get going soon?”

“I guess I’ll have to be.” She rubbed her stomach again. “I hope round two won’t happen quite yet. Might get lucky with the next hop.”

Mason glanced down the street to where his sister and the others were standing off in the far distance. As soon as they got back they should probably move on. With how short the recharge times had been lately he was sure they wouldn’t need to mill around in this place.

Looking down at his hopper he’d expected to see the inverted triangle symbol indicating they were all ready to go. At the very least he should have seen the red warning alert saying they couldn’t leave yet. Instead there was a completely new symbol on the disc that he’d never seen before, a flashing set of green concentric circles.

His eyes widened as he finally comprehended the meaning behind the odd behaviour. “Oh my god. We’re here! We actually made it!”

“What? Mason, what are you on about?”

“We don’t need to use the hoppers anymore because _we’ve arrived_! Don’t you get it Paz, _this_ is the source of the signal. The one that we entered the portal in the first place to find, the one that’s been resonating out throughout the cosmos. This city is our final destination, or at least a roughly close location.”

“No way. That’s certainly a relief for my guts.”

“We have to go tell the others. We finally did it, yes!”

“Uh, Mace-“

“We’ll have to start scouting nearby locations, narrowing down the precise origin with pinpoint accuracy might still take some time to-“

“Mason!”

He swivelled round to see what Pacifica was yelling about. Marching down the street was a large crowd of people, coming from the opposite direction to Mabel’s party. The only thing he could see down that way was the city’s edge, opening out onto a wide empty desert of grey dust.

Right now they were both more concerned with the mob heading towards them than where they’d come from. They all wore ragged brown cloaks concealing most of their bodies. From what the couple could see of their faces, they were crab-like in nature, with small pincers over the mouths and a pair of stalked beady eyes trained on them.

Pacifica and Mason made a silent agreement to stand their ground. No point running before they knew what the crowd wanted. If this really was the cosmic signal’s origin point they might learn a lot talking to the strange denizens anyway.

The presumed leader of the massed group raised an open palm (or claw rather), acknowledging their presence. “Thank you for not fleeing. Our appearances can be… difficult to accept. Where did you travellers come from? We thought there was no life outside the city”

“Uh, we sort of warped in from another dimension,” Mason tried to explain. “You guys live in this place?”

“We used to.” There was mass lowering of heads in respect, like mourners at a funeral. “We are what is left of the Latropian species. I am Kesta, our chieftain.” He punched his claw firmly against his chest.

Pacifica gave a quick bow, then nudged Mason so he did the same. They might as well show some common courtesy, given how timid and afraid these people were. She introduced themselves as the Pines, then made Mason bring out his journal. If this really was the place they’d been searching for then they’d need to make a record of anything significant. “We’re new here on this planet. We need you to tell us everything about yourselves.”

“Yeah,” Mason said, “like what’s with the mysterious cloaks? You don’t seem like people with something to hide.”

“We are dying, Mr Pines. Our whole world is.” To the gasps of both the couple and several of his fellow Latropians, Kesta cast his cloak aside. Mason guessed that his pale bleached shell, broken in places, was originally meant to be a more vibrant shade of red like a lobster. Now the once-tall crustacean was huddled over, several of his limbs withered. Odd scars and what looked like burn marks punctuated his carapace in random spots.

“You’re all like this, aren’t you?” Pacifica intoned. “I’m so sorry.”

“It began a few weeks ago. First our great city lost all power overnight. Then we started suffering.” Kesta looked at his people, unable to do anything to halt their decay. “We huddle at the edge of the wilderness where there is nothing to do but choke on the dust, and where no plants grow.”

“Why not stay in the city though?” Mason asked between furiously writing down everything Kesta had dictated. “Surely that’s better than leaving all this stuff behind?”

“We are afraid of being too close.”

“Too close to what?”

“AHH! We’ll save you Dipper!”

The other travellers came hurtling down the street ready to fight. Mabel had her wrist gauntlet raised, aiming it at the chief survivor. Merrise even started ineffectively battering the poor man with her arms.

Only Jheselbraum took a moment to assess the situation, before striding beside Kesta and placing her hands on both his shoulders. “Apologies. You deserve whatever mercy we can provide before the end.”

“What, you guys aren’t in danger?” Mabel’s arms flopped uselessly down. “Talk about a wasted sprint.”

“Dipper, Dipper!” Merrise ran to his side and started tugging at his leg. “You have to see what we found, it’s incredible!” She wouldn’t let go, pointing down the long street to its eventual end.

“Found?” Pacifica asked as she shielded her eyes and squinted. “There’s nothing there. All I see is more clouds and desert.”

“Sort of look in the middle and make yourself go all crossed-eyed, that helped me spot it!” Mabel tried to helpfully add.

Mason’s eyes widened and his whole face started turning upwards. A second later Pacifica had the exact same reaction, not quite believe what she could see. “But that’s…”

“The Wall.” The single word in Kesta’s description was all that was needed. It was the basic fact of this city, positioned in the shadow of the wall. It was as much a permanent feature of the landscape as the pale sun high above.

“What the hell’s it for?” Mason turned to the Latropians, who were all staring at the distant barrier with a religious awe. “You didn’t build it?”

Kesta shook his head. “It was here when our kind first arrived, generations ago. We were once journeying across the stars on a colony ship, searching for a new world. As we passed this barren rock, our instruments began to fail. Hundreds died in the initial impact.” The old man’s face, still fixed on the wall, was clearly pained by recalling the events, even if he himself hadn’t directly lived them.

“We gathered the remnants of our ship from the crash and vowed to make what we could of this world. The elders chose to place our city here, at the junction of the two walls. At first we thought it was a sound location, nestled with the wall at our backs.”

“Let me guess,” Mabel said. “The Wall was keeping something out.”

“That is what we assume. We have heard noises from over the wall, grinding and moaning like some fearsome creatures. Those are the shadowlands, kept in perpetual darkness from the wall blocking the sun. We do not know what truly lives over there, only that whatever lies beyond is a greater evil than we have ever faced as a people.”

All of them – Human, Tengosan, and Latropian alike – stared at the Wall. All except one. The many eyes of Jheselbraum were turned in the exact opposite direction. Staring off away through the empty wastes. “What about the other direction? What lies across the desert?”

“As far as we know the two walls go on forever. We sent scouting parties to try and map them once, but they quickly gave up due to the immense distances involved.”

“Hmm.” The Oracle continued to ponder the horizon. “I know what you will say next, Kesta of the Latropians. You will ask us for help.”

“Y-yes. Exactly.” The stunned chief looked imploringly at Pacifica and the twins. “You must save my people. I beg of you.”

Mabel saw the scared survivors, weak and tired from enduring the trials of this harsh world. She was about to offer their help wholeheartedly, when Mason flicked his head to the side.

“Uh, guys, quick group huddle?” Leaving the Latropians without an answer, they all gathered down the street away from prying ears. “I started a scan of this planet a short while ago. I wanted to know if we could learn anything from the atmospheric makeup or temperature or whatever. I know what’s killing these guys.”

“Well, spit it out,” Mabel prompted when he didn’t carry on. “Why so cagey all of a sudden?”

“I didn’t want to say this, Mabel, because you want to help these folks. You always want to help out people in need, and normally I’d be right there with you. But not this time. The reason they’re dying isn’t something we can fix. The Latropians are showing all the classic signs. This whole place is soaked in radiation.”

There was a moment of silence as they each absorbed the knowledge. Pacifica was the first to speak. “I don’t mean to sound panicked, but is there a risk? I mean, will we be affected too? Merry doesn’t even have a survival suit.”

“I told you, it’s _Merrise_,” the girl said with a roll of her eyes.

“Right, sorry.”

The Tengosan could detect the genuine apology and smiled back at Pacifica without resentment. “But yeah, what about that stuff, Dipper? Are me and Jheselbraum safe? Those guys look like they’re in a lot of pain.”

“I think we’ll be alright for the foreseeable. Maybe if we lingered around here for a few months we’d start getting sick. It takes time to build up. These people have been living here for years, it’s no wonder that the radiation poisoning is at such an advanced stage.”

When Pacifica spoke next it was with a harsh edge to her voice. “We need to think what our next move is. All our normal routines are off the table now, no hopping anymore. Finding out where the signal is coming from should be our number one priority. It seems to me like these Latropians are nothing to do with our mission or any a-mortal plans. They aren’t the even natives, they’re only here by accident.”

“I don’t know if it’s just an accident that they ended up crashing on the very same world we’ve been searching for,” Mason said, busy crafting theories in his head, “but your point stands. We should try and figure out a way to narrow our search fields.”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing from you guys!” Mabel stamped her feet on the metal street, a sense of righteous anger building in herself. “Moving on and leaving would be heartless. Helping people out is what we do. It’s our moral duty to find a way to save them.”

“That’s just it, I don’t think we can help at this stage. Bits of them are falling off for Christ’s sake! They’re past the point of no return already.”

“We have to do something, Dipper. We can at least _try_ to stop what’s killing them. Even if it is pointless in the long run. It’ll give them something to hope for. Please?”

Mabel’s tone wasn’t a demand or a petulant whine. She was trying to appeal to his better nature. That wouldn’t have worked on him a year ago, but now he had a lot of sympathy for her ideals. Naïve or not, her heart was always in the right place.

“I agree with Mabel,” Merrise piped up. “You could’ve left on Tengosa too, but you stayed around to help catch the murderer. I know you care enough to help them out.” 

They were both right, of course. The cold, distant Mason of the last few years was finally erased. “Alright, I suppose one thing we can do is try to find where the radiation is coming from. The locals seem to think the other side of that wall is a dangerous place. I say we need to find out if that’s the source. It might also lead us to finding our signal. Two birds with one stone, how does that sound?”

Mabel was already grinning, mind racing with ideas on how to carry out the plan. “Pacifica, you ok with how that sounds too?”

Her friend was playing idly with her pendant and staring at the wall, as if she could almost see beyond the metal structure. “We’ve come so close. Can’t stop now. But getting over is our first problem. That wall is far too smooth and high for us to scale it.”

Mabel nodded in agreement, having the most experience of any of them at climbing and parkouring. “And even the nearest and tallest tower in the city is still too far off to get a grapple line to the top.”

“I don’t think searching for an opening on foot would do us any good either,” Mason said. “We could spend days wasting time that way and we still probably won’t find a way through.”

Jheselbraum finally spoke. She’d been utterly silent during the debate, passively waiting for them to come to a joint conclusion. “Perhaps our cloaked friends can provide some means of assisting themselves.”

Pacifica took Journal 7 off her husband and skimmed through the shorthand notes he’d been making as they’d talked with the strangers. “Kesta mentioned they salvaged the materials to build this city from the crash. They might still have some old working propulsion units lying around that they took from the old ship. And those roadways up above mean they must have cars of some kind. If we could retrofit a chassis with one of the engines from their old ship, we could build a makeshift plane or spacecraft. What do you guys think? It’s a bit of a longshot.”

Despite the tricky odds, Mabel was stroking her chin. “That’s a hell of a plan. I do have some mechanical knowledge from working on my motorbike. Not to mention keeping the Stan O’ War afloat. How different could constructing an interstellar rocket from scratch be?”

* * *

“Pass the sonic wrench, would ya.” The Latropian aiding her passed the tool and Mabel tightened what felt like the hundredth bolt in the car’s engine. “Grab a laser cutter too, I’m gonna need to clear off some of the metal coverings.”

Mabel wiped her hands on an oily rag and looked down at her work so far. It was an impressive hack-job, it had to be said, forcing this old ground-based car into something that would eventually fly. The cockpit had five seats, with precious little room to move about, but it would be enough.

They had the support of all the Latropians behind them, who’d gone to gather supplies from all across the ruins. There was enough detritus lying about that would hopefully contribute. Pacifica had taken off on her own, marching off on an exploratory mission to get close to the base of the Wall itself, to see if she could learn anything.

Turning to the question of _how_ the shining, advanced city had been built, Mason, with the help of Kesta, had found some of the old construction robots used to initially build most of the towers before being decommissioned and put into storage. They contained some vital parts that sped up the process. Now her brother and the chieftain were collecting the all-important propulsion units that would get their clunker off the ground.

While Mabel tinkered on the lashed together craft, Merrise was happily directing the survivors bringing in supplies, getting them to place items in neat categories. It gave the girl something to occupy herself with, a role that gave her a sense of being in charge. The locals also seemed play along good-naturedly, treating her with the utmost respect and making her beam with pride.

“Here’s the cutter you asked for.”

Mabel’s Latropian assistant held the tool out before her while she stared slack jawed. “Sorry, I was miles away, head in the clouds. Thanks. I’m Mabel.” Cutter in one hand, she got back to work, while shaking the claw-like appendage of the alien.

“Arannah,” she said, observing how Mabel could somehow work flawlessly on the car with only occasional checks to make sure she wasn’t cutting the wrong section. “Don’t you just love that smell of heat and oil? The forging of something new.”

“You’re a mechanic? That’s way cool!”

“This is the kind of thing I used to do all time. Before… I would help you now, but my hands shake too much.” Arannah pulled her brown cloak over herself more firmly. All these people were ashamed of what they’d become, shells of their former selves. Quite literally, given their resemblance to crabs.

Mabel wanted to help her open up, to not be so afraid. Maybe touching on a similar topic might help. “It reminds me, over the summer we were all working together on this project… long story. This is kinda like a mini version of that. The final step in our journey.” The laser sheared part of the car’s hood clean off, and Mabel tossed the useless metal aside. “You guys all seem reenergised since you started helping out.”

Arannah grinned, hope visible in her eyes. “We have a purpose again. Together we can fight against whatever’s hurting us from over the Wall. Look over there.” Arannah pointed over at Merrise. The eager girl was chatting away with several survivors, joking around and making them laugh. “Seeing your child so happy gives us hope that things can be that way again for us.”

“Oh, she’s not my child. Now Dipper and Pacifica’s… well that’s another story.”

She chuckled to herself at the idea but frowned when Arannah’s mood suddenly turned serious. “There haven’t been any children in the city for a long time. It’s been too quiet here.”

“Hey, it’s not all bad. We’re gonna go over that Wall and keep you safe. Your leader seems to be doing his best too.”

“Kesta’s not the leader,” she said derisively. “He was the head archivist in our library. But right now he’s the most senior official left. He’s all we’ve got.”

“I know what that’s like. See.” Kesta was returning up the long concourse, with her brother in tow. He was studiously staring at his journal like his life depended on it. “Those two might have book smarts, but I’d like see them put this engine together. Us gals gotta stick together.”

“I like you, Mabel. You have spirit.” Arannah leant over the exposed engine, then whispered cautiously. “Do you think you can make this fly? I mean, really? This is my people’s last chance.”

“Oh, it’ll fly,” Mabel said confidently. “Only problem is making sure it stays up after that, otherwise it’ll be a really short fact-finding mission.”

This made Arannah giggle, and the two of them privately laughed together like naughty schoolgirls. The sounds of joy had been sorely lacking on this world.

Arannah’s laughs suddenly became coughs, as she clutched her chest. It sounded to Mabel like her throat was being worn ragged, as the Latropian buckled over and spat up phlegm on the ground.

“I thought this would happen.” Jheselbraum was beside them out of nowhere. Mabel hadn’t even noticed the oracle until now. She’d been standing so still during all the activity, neither helping nor hindering their efforts. Like the Wall, she too was a monolith that blended into the background. “The decay rate is accelerating.”

Mabel helped Arannah get back on her feet. She led her towards more of her kind, where she could rest and recover from the choking fit. Mabel glared at Jheselbraum and confronted her with a harsh whisper. “What is your problem missy? Nice work keeping people calm. We’re supposed to be helping these people, not being all clinical and dismissing them.”

“This world is a dead end. No life will come after this generation.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to be so cold about it.” Had the oracle always been this above-it-all, even when conversing all that time in the clouds with Pacifica? “I’m focused on helping these people in the here and now. I’m not interested in what might happen to them. They deserve our care. You can’t just take the high ground and stay out of all of this.”

“I know. That’s what your brother used to do.” Mabel was taken aback by the breadth of her knowledge. Jheselbraum breathed out, then spoke in a more apologetic tone. “Taking a broader view need not exclude seeing the individuals suffering before us. I am sorry, Pacifica told me I needed to improve in that aspect.”

“Well, thanks, I guess. See, I believe it’s never too late to try and do a good thing. If that means giving these people a peaceful chance to run out the clock then that’s good enough for me.”

Jheselbraum smiled, accepting that worldview. “I will try my best. All this direct action is new for me.”

“This is nothing, wait ‘til you fight your first monster or something, that’ll get your heart racing. Wait, do your species have hearts? Or maybe more than one?” Jheselbraum opened her mouth to answer but Mabel cut her off. “Nevermind, Dipper can ask you about that for his journal later. Now if you want to help: You can go fetch me a screwdriver.”

* * *

By the time Pacifica returned from her fact-finding mission at the Wall, the ship was practically complete. Journal under one arm, she looked over the construction, impressed by the speedy work, before breathlessly describing what she’d seen. “When I thought this thing was unscalable I was right. There’s not a single blemish along the entire length as far as I could make out. I’d love to meet whoever designed this thing, it’s a very impressive architectural achievement.”

“No way to break through on ground level?” Mason asked. “We got through the outer wall of the Mountain with a big enough force.”

“Not a chance, it’s too thick. Even if we had explosives, which we don’t, they’d barely scratch the thing.”

“Damn, and here I was looking forward to more amateur pyrotechnics. Guess plan A it is.” He called over to his sister, working on the rear of the improvised ship. “Are we ready for take-off yet?” Mabel didn’t speak but stuck her thumb in the air and held up her hand with an open palm. “Five minutes, ok. It’ll be a more clunky ride than our portal hops.”

“At least it won’t give me nausea, I hope.”

“We’re really going to fly up in the sky?” Merrise came running over, tingling with excitement. “I can’t wait!”

“Never been on a flight, eh?” Mason said. “Go on then, strap yourself in kiddo. With Mabel’s handiwork it’ll definitely be a ride to remember.”

She skipped off, and Mason found Pacifica squeezing his hand. “We do kinda make good parents, huh.”

Mason tensed up for a moment, still feeling a natural revulsion to thinking about the whole topic, before loosening up and letting out a breath. “Yeah, I guess we do.” They shared a kiss, each thinking of the possibilities for when this was all over. Perhaps the life they’d always wished for wasn’t as remote as they’d long believed.

The seats in the ship were arranged with two on each side and one in the centre. The couple took the back seats, letting Mabel steer and Merrise ride shotgun, while Jheselbraum was grumbling and strapping herself in to the much-too-small space in the middle.

Mabel slammed down the trunk and hopped into the driver’s seat. “Right, pre-flight checks complete. Never flown a plane before but hey, how hard can it be?”

“This is filling me with so much confidence,” Pacifica drawled.

Mabel flicked a switch on the dashboard and the ship chugged to life. “Engine is a go.” She waved to the Latropians, who’d gathered to see them off. Kesta, Arannah, and all the others were watching with bated breath. Mabel gave them a quick, solemn wave, then lowered the canopy. Jheselbraum had to hunch over to avoid hitting the glass, so snug was the fit. There wasn’t time to change it now though.

Parting like the sea, the Latropians stood to the side of the lengthy street the travellers had arrived on. The ship trundled along the metal road, building up speed and shaking wildly. Mabel kept yelling over the noise of the engine that everything was going fine. Sitting rigid in their seats, Pacific and Mason held each other’s hands tightly.

In an instant the wheels of the ship left the ground. They were hovering just over it, and still hurtling towards the grey desert. Mabel pulled back on the steering wheel and they arced upwards. Merrise cheered and whooped. The heavy acceleration on their bodies gradually faded away as Mabel wrestled the controls to get them level.

“Phew, pretty good for a newbie I’d say.”

“Now take us over the Wall,” Mason said, leaning as far as he could at the edge of the canopy to see the city down below. Though they’d crested above the highest pinnacle, they were still below the Wall’s full height. As on the ground, in the other direction they still saw nothing but dusty wastes.

Mabel navigated them up, flying parallel to one stretch of the Wall. They kept rising and rising and rising, then suddenly the Wall was gone. Everyone pressed their faces against the canopy to look over into the shadowlands.

There was joint confusion by what they saw, which Merrise succinctly put into words. “Oh, it’s… exactly the same.”

Dunes of grey dust covered the landscape below, just as on the city’s side. The only difference was a section of shadow stretching behind the Wall, casting parts of the desert into darkness. Other than that it seemed as mundane and lifeless.

“Where are the demons and monsters?” Mabel asked as she cruised over the landscape. “Where’s the big bad thing that’s causing the people to die?”

“I don’t know.” Mason checked the scanner on his suit. “But now that we’re higher in the atmosphere, I can tell you that the radiation isn’t coming from this side of the Wall at all. It’s coming from that way.” He pointed at the exact midpoint between the two parts of the wall, far away at the supposed mouth of the V-shaped valley.

Pacifica doubted what she was seeing. “This isn’t making any sense. Why build this Wall, why put in all that effort if it’s not keeping anything out?”

“Perhaps we’re not seeing the whole picture,” Jheselbraum offered. “The Wall’s purpose may be invisible at ground level. Mason, can you triangulate the origin of the radiation.”

He nodded. “Uh huh. We just need to get higher.”

“Then do that please, Miss Pines.”

“Right right,” Mabel said. “Taking us up. I hope this canopy is airtight.” They flew in zigzags, with the city positioned below them as a reference point. As the horizon got further and further away, the scale of the Wall once again blew her away, with each half of the structure still carrying on beyond what she could see. “It’s such a weird thing to build. What’s the point of making it a giant V?”

“Maybe the original inhabitants on this planet were really big too?” Mason posited. “Can’t rule anything out.”

With the Latropian city rapidly shrinking beneath them, they flew serenely through the upper atmosphere. There were no clouds up here to obscure their view thankfully, just the pale grey sky and the weak sun.

“There, I see something!” Merrise cried.

“Where, where?” Mason leant forward to the front seats, trying to get a glimpse of what she’d seen.

Mabel tried to push him out the tight space. “Hey, watch it, I’m driving here!”

“I see it too,” Jheselbraum added calmly.

Reacting slower than her husband, Pacifica followed the two aliens’ gazes to the far north. The two halves of the Wall still continued off in their separate directions, but on the horizon was wide bowl; a caldera of metal slap bang in the middle of the desert. It made the Mountain on Tengosa seem like a minor hillock in comparison. The centre of the caldera was dark, with no features visible within.

Pacifica was about to ask what in world the structure was for, expecting some scientific guesses from Mason and more flowery mysticism from the Oracle, when she saw a harsh blue light begin to emanate from within the caldera. The light shone and lit up the whole sky. She guessed that even the Latropians on the ground might be able to see the light, like a ghostly aurora coming from beyond their horizon.

It didn’t take long for the entire caldera to be filled with blue swirling energy, a vast pool of light. A burst of energy suddenly swept out from the circle, sending up ripples of dust. From up here they looked tiny, but on the surface those clouds would be almost as tall as the towers of the city.

The city. They looked down at the city, shaking down below like an earthquake had hit. A second later their ship shook, hit by an aftershock of the energy from below. Another great thunderclap signalled a second wave of energy emanating from the caldera.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!” Mason panicked in his seat and started tugging at Mabel’s shoulder. “Take us up, now, as fast as you can!”

“Dipper, calm down! What is it?”

“I think this is what caused the colony ship to crash. This same energy outburst. For all our sakes, fly!”

Mabel yanked hard on the wheel, forcing her brother back into his seat. The others lurched and were fixed in place by the pull. Mabel was no longer taking her time piloting. They needed to get up, fast. She pulled the wheel as far as it would go, turning the ship nearly vertical to escape the waves of energy.

“But what about them!” Merrise strained against the force to try and look down at the city beneath them. More quakes struck it constantly. Her heart stopped in her chest when she saw one of the towers crumple at the base and begin to slowly topple over. “They’re gonna die down there!”

“We go back now, we die too,” Jheselbraum stated. The harsh reality was necessary. Mabel would be naturally inclined to try and help the Latropians if she had her way. But it was far too late for that. “Stay on course.”

Mabel groaned as she kept the ship facing skyward, the ramshackle engine being pushed to its limit. The pulses of energy were increasing in frequency now, tearing up the bedrock of the planet below. Somehow through it all the Wall remained untouched, stalwart against the primordial chaos.

Their own ship was being buffeted hard now, shaking wildly like it would fall apart any second. A ring of flame ignited around the front of the hull as they started to pass through the outer atmosphere. Taking punishment from in front and behind, the occupants experienced a force almost as traumatising as when they’d first entered the portal.

One final great blast of energy hit them, propelling the ship forwards at a phenomenal speed. Pacifica tried to look out at the landscape but couldn’t even see the city anymore. There was just swirling dust, the Wall, and the blue light she found strangely familiar.

Then, miraculously, the forces acting on them began to slow. They passed through the heat barrier and out into a panoply of brightly twinkling stars and nebulae. All of them were hyperventilating, bar the still calm as always Jheselbraum. Mabel rand a hand over her recently shaved head and whistled. “Wow. We barely made it out of that alive.” She checked the instruments quickly. “Looks like the ship’s held up. A little battered, but all systems are responding.”

“What about the Latropians!” Merrise was on the verge of tears at the thought of the survivors facing the same vast force they’d only just survived. “When I last looked, I couldn’t see the city!”

“Wiped out, all of it.” Mason said breathlessly. “My god, all those people…”

Merrise broke down, pulling her legs up and sobbing to herself. Mabel too had a hollow look on her face.

“We… we have to keep going,” Pacifica slowly said. “What happened today is a tragedy. Kesta, Arannah… all the people we never even got to know. We have to carry their memory, yes. But we also have to find out why that just happened. Ok? So we can stop it happening to anyone else.” She turned to her fellow passengers, one by one, and they nodded in quiet agreement. She took special care to reach over and hug Merrise tightly, that poor kid who shouldn’t have had to see something like that.

“I see our way forward,” Jheselbraum stated in her typical way. Hovering in space in orbit around the planet was a space station, with a circular rim around the base of a tall spire. Without being asked, Mabel wiped away her tears and set them on a course towards it.

It was only as they started pulling away that Pacifica turned back and noticed the planet they’d left below. “Stop! Stop the ship!” Mabel pulled to a swift halt, jolting them all in their chairs. “I know what the Wall is for! Oh my…”

They all stared down through the glass. From the height they were now at, the entire hemisphere of the planet was visible. Directly below them were the ruins of the city. At least, they assumed that, from this distance any trace of it was far too small to be visible.

But the Wall was still plain to see. The enormous V-shaped valley, with the two Walls splitting off from each other, traversed half of the entire planet, before each separate part met a third, horizontal Wall. Together they formed a single giant inverted triangle.

At the centre of all three Walls was the caldera. Or, more accurately, the aperture. Glowing with spinning blue light, the sight was unmistakable. Someone had carved it right across this entire world.

It was just like the one they’d put together in the Mystery Shack’s basement. It was a portal. A portal the size of an entire planet. And now the way was opened.


	39. The Fall

Shaken but alive, the Pines and their companions drifted towards the hovering palace. Their ship, with its hastily constructed nature and all the damage it took escaping the planet, wouldn’t hold up for long. They had basically no choice but to make haste towards the space station in orbit.

The rim of the disc surrounding the central spire housed a number of docking bays, where they were able to put down their damaged ship. Thankfully the one they chose was vacant. Somehow the Pines doubted that whoever had set this whole thing up would be too accommodating to unexpected visitors.

Leaving their ship that wouldn’t be flying again anytime soon, the passed out of the empty hangar and made their way cautiously along the ring, hoping to find a connecting tube that would lead the main tower. The metal corridors were airy, with wide windows open to space, showing the grey dustball below.

Though the prospect of being discovered was hard to ignore, Mason was springing down the hallway with a spring in his step, staring around with mouth agape. “And I thought the Latropian city was impressive. Perfect standard gravity levels, fully breathable environment. I think it smells fresher in here than it did planetside. Whoever built this station must have some cutting-edge tech.”

Pacifica looked out the window at the planet they’d only barely escaped. “Probably the same people who built the Wall… who built that thing,” she corrected herself. Even now, staring at it from hundreds of miles above, it was still a chilling sight. Half a planet taken over by one massive portal, its triangular frame forming mile-high walls, and the glowing aperture in the continent-sized bowl at the centre. The light shining from within outclassed even that of the system’s nearby star. Pacifica wondered what could possibly be worth all the effort, what could lie beyond those tendrils of blue light. “It’s horrible. All those people, wiped out pretty much as an afterthought.”

“Exactly,” Mabel said. Unlike her brother she was taking a more serious approach. This was an infiltration, not a tech demo. “If someone’s built a portal on that scale they’d not just be doing it for kicks. That’s probably the a-mortals’ doomsday device down there. Too many people have already died today.” She didn’t want to voice the possibility that if things got worse they might end up losing one of their own party. 

A twinge of that protective instinct for Merrise that Mason often felt was at the back of her mind, keeping her alert. The alien girl was in lockstep behind Mason, trying to emulate his style of exploration, of analysing the surroundings and taking it all in to be written up in a journal later. There was a new reservedness though. She was only a child after all, and the recent calamity would naturally have a profound affect anyone that young. She was likely only ignoring it because they still had to focus on the mission.

Through it all, the oracle, Jheselbraum, lightly strolled behind the group, arms in her long sleeves. She was always watching, always observing… something. Mabel couldn’t tell what.

“Aha, this is more like it!” Mason had reached a turning point in the ring, with a side door that led across to the centre spire. There was a pad beside the door and, without any other option presenting itself, he placed his palm on it. There was no response. “Oh. Hey, Mabel, do you think you crack this thing? I know it’s more techno that the usual locks you break.”

“Lemme see.” She pushed her brother out of the way and examined the lock. “Hmm, it’s tricky, but I think I can do it. There’s almost always an override with these things.” She got out a set of tools from her back and jimmied the hand scanner out of the wall socket.

With time to kill, Pacifica compared the massive portal outside with the basic specifications she had drawn up in her llama journal. It was a one-to-one match for the classic Ford Pines design, exactly the same as the one in they’d hopefully left destroyed back in Gravity Falls so no-one could follow. Though, given that all this was here, and their encounter with the Lottoqueen, an alien a-mortal who knew their names, it seemed that somehow the a-mortals on Earth had found a way to breach into the multiverse.

Silently, Merrise came up beside her and linker her six-fingered hand with Pacifica’s. They were both feeling a joint trepidation for the massive portal, and the destruction it had wrought activating itself. “I knew the a-mortals had grand plans,” she said to the girl, “but I never really grasped what that meant. I guess _that_ down there is what you can build when you have several spare centuries to work.”

“These a-mortal people are really bad, aren’t they?”

“You never miss a trick. If they get their way, we all might go the same way as Kesta and his people.”

“But that won’t happen. We’ll stop them, I know it!” The little girl’s grip tightened, and Pacifica felt a surge of newfound confidence. If Merrise could believe, she could too.

“Got it!” Mabel said, congratulating herself. “Right, we’ll be through this door in a jiffy!”

“How long’s a jiffy?” Merrise asked blankly.

Pacifica chuckled and said, “I’ll tell you when you’re older,” as if it was some great secret to confide in, which made Merrise laugh too.

Mabel twisted one of her prongs inside the inner wiring, sending out sparks. The door slid open, but at the same moment a blaring alarm rang out and red warning lights started flashing.

An intercom started blandly speaking out. “_Warning. Warning. Intruders detected by northeast boarding tube._”

“Uh oh! Split up!” Mabel bolted instantly down the ring, back the way they’d come. Mason ran off in the other direction, further round the station’s circumference with Jheselbraum’s flowing robes following after.

Some instinct inside Pacifica, still holding Merrise’s hand tightly, led her to choose the centre path, towards the tall main tower at the station’s heart. To her it seemed the most likely place she was going to find out more about this whole affair.

* * *

Breathless, Mason swerved into a small nook at the side of the corridor. It was identical to the last, with a wide viewport showing the portal planet. Panting hard, he had to stop and recover his stamina. His next move was up in the air. They’d been flying by the seat of their pants for the whole endeavour, so at least it was nothing new.

Finally ready to continue, he jumped when he looked up into seven eyes bearing down on him. “Ah! Oh, it’s just you.”

Jheselbraum had followed him this far. She’d made so little noise running after him that he hadn’t noticed her until now. “We must not delay. I sense other minds nearing. And one particularly strong set of thoughts…” She trailed off, staring into the distance, before decisively fixing herself on him again. “Come now, Mason.”

“Uh, sure. After you, miss Oracle?” Grimacing, he gestured the way forward.

She held her head high and gently stepped onwards, her flowing robes never once rising from the floor and revealing what could possibly lie below. Mason had spent some time concerned with the Oracle. He’d found in Journal 3 Ford’s old record of visiting Dimension 52, years before. His account did little to expand on the enigmatic woman, who seemed both extremely wise yet also oddly unhelpful. Surely a being with such immense knowledge would have something more practical to offer, or so he would have assumed.

“I prefer a more hands-off approach, Mr Pines.”

He stood, shell-shocked in the middle of the corridor, then pointed an accusing finger at Jheselbraum’s back. “You read my mind!”

She stopped and turned her head. “You have concerns about this?”

Mason shrugged, trying to figure out where he stood. “Normally I’m not a fan of mind reading, but I guess in a dangerous situation like this… always good to have clear communication… I suppose.” He mumbled quietly until she stopped staring at him. Those eyes were just so damn distracting. “It just reminds me,” he called after her. “It’s too much like what Bill Cipher used to do, poking around in other people’s business where he didn’t belong. And I went through a lot of psychic stuff with Mabel-“

“I understand your issues, Mason.” This time she didn’t look at him. Maybe she’d heard what he’d thought about her unnerving him? “Cipher and I were once bitterly opposed. I should not have sunk to tactics he once employed. Yet I proved… imperfect.”

He felt an odd pang of sympathy for her. So aloof as she presented herself most of the time, hearing some genuine emotion in her voice was notable. “Hey, you don’t have to be disappointed in yourself. We all do some things we regret when pushed. Just… do it in moderation, I guess.”

“As you wish.” Though he still couldn’t see her face, he thought he detected a lighter tone to her voice. It was a start at least, not that bonding with this alien was something he was particularly skilled at. Not as fast as he’d grown attached to their other alien companion, at least.

Jheselbraum carried on down the hallway, but he called out again. “Hey, can I ask one more question? What was Ford like, when you met him?” He thought of how reduced the man he’d once idolised had seemed the last time he’d visited the retirement home in Florida. It would be nice to hear something of how he’d been before.

“Stanford Pines was… a unique encounter. Such a man only emerges once in an eon. We spent quite a night together, drinking cosmic sand under the stars… that is all I shall say.”

Mason took it in, imagining his Grunkle pioneering his way through the multiverse, to places he too had now been lucky enough to visit. “That’s really cool to hear J, thanks. You know, there aren’t many people left around who knew him back then-“

“Hush!” She grabbed him and pulled him into the shadows, hugging the inner wall.

“What, what is it?”

“Be silent!”

He lowered his voice and tried to peer down the hallway. “Why are we whispering? I can’t- oh.”

He heard the slap of bare feet against metal. Someone was running towards them. The Oracle must have sensed the person’s thoughts before they were in audible range. He prepared for a fight, wondering whether Jheselbraum would be any help or not.

He finally saw them, belting down the corridor as if their life depended on it. They slipped, tumbling on the smooth metal floor. Mason saw shimmering multicoloured skin and fins growing on their head and arms. “Zera?”

“Mason?!” The fish-like alien stared up at the two of them with relief in her eyes. “When did you get here?”

“I could ask you the same thing!” He rushed to her side to help her up, still slightly worried about her pursuers. “Are you alright? Why were you running? Oh, this is Jheselbraum by the way, she’s a friend.”

“Greetings, Zera of S’aren. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Shooting Star.

“Uh, hi.” Zera was slightly awed by the tall hooded woman. “Nice to meet you too?” she shrugged. “Where are Mabel and Pacifica?”

“They’re onboard this place, don’t worry. I’m can assure you my sister will be _very_ happy to see you again.”

As he righted her on her feet, there was a loud shout from down the hallway. “Get back here!” Red-faced with anger, Mason was both baffled and happy to see Eli Corazón in one piece. At least until he realised who he was shouting at.

Still held in his arms, Zera pressed herself closer against him for protection. Mason held out a hand to stop her pursuer. “Woah, Eli. You made it through the portal.”

“Mason Pines?” His jaw dropped open. “Wow, I can’t believe you’re here. Now hand over that alien scum and we can interrogate her.” Zera hissed back at him and wriggled free to start a brawl.

“Wait, hold on- scum? Zera’s our friend, Mabel must have told you about her?” Mason placed himself between the two, keeping either one from engaging. “In Japan, with the Sun Crystal? We ran into her again a few weeks ago on Lottocron. That is, I think it was a few weeks, my sense of time’s been a bit frazzled lately. Now let’s calm down and talk about this.”

“She’s with you?” Eli noticed Jheselbraum for the first time and had a look of bare confusion on his face. Then he blushed. “Oh. Sorry then, Zera was it?” She pursed her lips and kept angrily glaring at him. “Look, I arrived here separated from the others. I ran into fish girl there and thought she was an enemy, ok? I am sorry.” He put a hand on his chest and held up a palm.

“Fine,” Zera said, not looking him in the eye. Mason grabbed each of their hands and made them shake unenthusiastically.

“Right, that’s sorted.” Mason breathed out, glad that they could move on. “Man, seeing you two again though. This really must be the place we’ve been searching for all this time.”

“The a-mortal stronghold,” Eli said, looking down on the planet. “It’s worse than I ever could have imagined. At last we can put a stop to whatever they’ve been scheming.”

“Uh, one small thing,” Zera said, raising her hand. “Have either of you seen any of these, what are they called, a-mortals? Cause since I arrived I haven’t run into anyone.”

“It has been kind of quiet,” Mason admitted.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen anyone either,” Eli said. “Strange. This place seems like the main crux of… well, everything.”

“Maybe…” Mason started pacing, deep in thought. “Maybe this project is run by, like, a skeleton crew or something. A small research team in the central spire perhaps. Maybe the a-mortals from Earth are running things?”

“From Earth? What, you mean there are other a-mortals too?” Eli asked, astounded by the idea.

“Indeed, I am one of them,” Jheselbraum said with no regard for how Eli would take the news. He tensed up again, furrowing his brow and readying in case he needed to attack her too.

“Hey, what did I say? Calm, calm.” Mason wished Pacifica or Mabel were here. Either an authoritative or calming tone would be helpful right now; he felt like he wasn’t conveying the required mood to defuse the tension. “J is our friend, she’s not with the others.”

“Hmm. If you say so.” Eli backed down but continued to eye the Oracle warily.

“Look, alien a-mortals clearly aren’t our problem.” Mason pointed out the window at the unavoidable design etched onto the surface of the planet below. “That’s Ford’s portal design. Which means this whole project here must have been started by a-mortals from our world. You know, Tool Maker, Crane, those guys! They’ve followed us here somehow!”

“Right, the Lottoqueen knew your names,” Zera pointed out.

“Is it really that unique?” Eli looked doubtfully at the giant portal. “I mean, with all the aliens out there…”

“No.” Jheselbraum’s voice echoed through the corridor, startling Eli. “Only the fusion of a mind as brilliant as Stanford’s, coupled with the initial spark and assistance from Bill Cipher himself could have forged the portal. This is that design. There is no copy or imitation on other worlds.”

“And those a-mortals on Earth knew about the signal we traced too.” Mason was starting to formulate a hypothesis. “So if they found a way to follow us – I don’t know how, but they did – then they must have set this whole giant portal up. For some reason. I was there when it activated, it wasn’t pretty down there.”

“What are you getting at?” Eli asked impatiently. “We should go find the others, they-“

“Hold on, I’m thinking.” Mason stared, hypnotised by the vast blue portal’s light. “They just turned it on properly for the first time. The initial tests must be over, so… the hangar we arrived in was completely empty. But it was big, enough for several ships. This place was built to expect visitors. Lots of visitors I’m guessing.”

Now all four of them were captivated by the portal’s light. Mason narrowed his eyes as what appeared to be dark spots started appearing in the solid blue. More and more dark patches, growing larger… no, moving towards them. Hundreds of them now, racing across the vastness of space from out of the portal towards the station.

Spaceships. A fleet of spaceships passing out of the portal. All of different sizes and designs. If the tests were finally done, then these could only be the rest of the a-mortals, the ones from all across the multiverse, gathering here to see the end of the project. The final end. 

Given their current speed he reckoned they had about half an hour before the mass docking began. Without taking his eyes off the gathering ships, he spoke to Zera. “Was Bo with you when you hopped here?”

She didn’t answer immediately, too entranced by the portal’s light. “Uh yeah. Me and him went different ways. He wanted to scout this whole ring before we tried breaching the spire. Wanted to be thorough. It was weird seeing him be cautious for once.”

“Alright. And Eli, you said you were separated from the others? Who exactly was with you before you arrived here?”

“A bunch of us from back home. Why do you need to know?”

Mason finally looked away from the viewscreen. “Because we’re going to need as many people as we can to repel boarders.”

* * *

The metal door slid shut behind Pacifica and Merrise, thankfully bringing an end to the sound of the deafening alarm. They’d made it to the centre of the station at last. Pacifica didn’t expect what they’d found inside. Drifting down a corridor with walls of stone came the sound of distant monastic chanting, like a prayer in a language she didn’t understand.

That made no sense, her survival suit was supposed to have a built-in universal translator. Hell, she’d designed the suit herself, she knew what its capabilities were. It was how she was able to understand her young companion as she crept forwards with little sense of hesitation.

“This place feels so different.” Merrise ran a hand along the stone wall, feeling the weathered texture. “Like, out there it was all shiny and new, but in here it feels…”

“Ancient. Just like our _old_ friends, the a-mortals.” 

The corridor ahead turned sharply, but Pacifica saw the flicker of torchlight round it. That and all the chanting meant they’d have to move cautiously. That plan was immediately shot through when Merrise started off without a care in the world.

“Hey! Don’t run off!” She was starting to sound like her husband. Her concerns were less about protecting Merrise though, and more about her blundering in and alerting someone to their presence. 

She hurried after the girl, finding her crouched by a small gap in the hallway. It was essentially a balcony, looking over a group of huddled people in robes. They were the ones chanting those incomprehensible words.

“What is that?” Merrise was pointing to the far end of the room, where all the acolytes’ attention was focused. There was statue carved from black obsidian, forming a large circle. But at the apex, Pacifica saw a head, biting down.

“It’s an ouroboros.”

“A what?”

“A snake… that’s an animal from Earth… look, it’s eating itself.”

“Why would it do that?”

“I don’t know!” She threw up her hands in frustration. Merrise’s over-eager questioning tone was only highlighting how out of her depth she felt. “It’s, like, symbolic or something. It’s to do with everlasting cycles, feeding on itself in an infinite loop. There’s something more to it though. Those guys down there, I think they’re doing more than just worshipping a ‘symbol’.”

Tingling upon her neck, she felt the minute tug of her Pine Tree pendant. It had sensed something, nearby. Given that the pendant normally only responded when it was extremely near something out of the ordinary, she had a hunch there was something big nearby.

She checked that the next hallway was clear before moving off, making sure to take the lead so she knew where Merrise was at all times. Precocious as she was, it wouldn’t do either of them any good if those acolytes discovered them snooping around.

“Pacifica?! No way, it can’t be!”

She spun around, seeing someone there back down the passageway they’d come from. Silently, they’d crept up on the two of them. Pacifica was rightfully terrified at first, until she saw a bright pink wool sweater on the figure. The long brown ponytail of hair and silver llama pendant told her this wasn’t Mabel, perhaps inexplicably sporting a change of clothes. 

She relaxed and got to her feet, standing face to face with her own copy, Andromeda. “You scared me there for a hot second. Long time no see, cousin.”

“Ciffy! It is you! And with a tiny space alien!” Merrise was clinging to one of Pacifica’s legs, unsure what to make of the boisterous clone. “Hugs!” Andromeda moved in for one of her patented painfully aggressive hugs, before slapping her forehead. “Wait, no, ach, scatterbrain. Hugs later.”

“Uh, Pacifica? Mind explaining why there’s two of you?” Merrise asked, as Andromeda ambled off aimlessly down the hallway.

“That’s a really long story.”

“Is she your twin, like with Dipper and-“

“It’s not that, trust me. Andromeda is kind of my doppelganger. She looks like me, but her brain is more… Mabelly. I know, I know, it’s weird. I’ll let you borrow my journal sometime so you can read up on it.”

“Gah, where is that coming from?!” Andromeda was now waving her hands about in the air and muttering to herself.

Pacifica laid a hand on her clone’s shoulder, trying to get her to speak some sense. “Ann, what’s your situation? Are you alone, did anyone else make it through the portal with you?”

“Are you completely crazy?” Merrise added flippantly, drawing a stern look from Pacifica.

Andromeda hadn’t seemed to hear the girl’s insult. “Others got lost, I think we all landed in different spots. But I can’t quite hear this properly. It’s not like a voice or an emotion. More like trying to watch every channel on tv at once.”

“Yeah, quick primer,” Pacifica said for Merrise’s benefit, “Ann has what we call Empathic abilities. She can tell what kind of things you’re feeling before you yourself do.” Merrise nodded, understanding well enough. Pacifica once again noted how fast the girl was able to keep up with all the nonsense they’re lives consisted of. “Now Ann, take it slowly. We’re here to help. What exactly are you sensing?”

The clone’s face was scrunched up in pain now. “I don’t know. It’s so loud, but I can’t make out any of it. I think… I think it’s what brought us here.”

“What, you mean, you’re hearing the _signal_?” Her eyes widened. “Can you narrow it down?”

“I think so.” She waved her hand again, scrawling indistinct patterns in the air. “This way!” The clone ran off, leaving Pacifica and Merrise to hastily catch up. At the next intersection she repeated the same process, closing her eyes, focusing, and reaching out to find which path to take. Pacifica was constantly on guard, hoping that they avoided any chanting devotees, who it seemed must be in league with the a-mortals somehow.

Eventually, after passing through more of the labyrinthine stone passages, they came to a large set of double doors. Pacifica reached out to run a hand along the black material. It was smooth, more of the same obsidian the ouroboros statue had been made of. Etched on the rock in white was another copy of the same snake sigil.

“Here! This is it.” Andromeda still had a distant look in her eyes but was determined that this was the right place. Pacifica didn’t doubt her one bit. She knew from personal experience just how powerful Andromeda’s abilities could be.

Before entering, Pacifica took stock of the hastily thrown together group. With Merrise and now Andromeda, she basically had two kids to look after, and only a fraction of someone like Mabel’s combat training. Whatever was on the other side of this door might be important. If it really was the source of the cosmic signal that had called out so far, then this was the very place they’d been travelling towards, practically ever since leaving Trenton a year ago.

Weighing the decision that finding answers was too important to pass up, Pacifica pushed at the door, but found she couldn’t budge it. “Ann, you’re strong, help me push.” The clone silently agreed, still too wrapped up in listening to the vague voices in her head to argue. With each girl pushing one of the doors, they split them asunder, symbolically breaking the ouroboros’ loop.

The chamber within was wide and open with a high vaulted ceiling. It was lit by the flicker of a few candles that barely penetrated the shadows. Their eyes were drawn to the centre of the cavernous room, where upon on a circular platform of yet more black obsidian sat something that made their stomachs lurch.

A bloated, pale creature lay languorously stretched out on the platform. It was like a giant grey slug with no limbs or even any defined features whatsoever. There was no face on the end of the stubby body, only a small feeding hole. Pulses occasionally rippled through the disgusting mass, as the creature writhed around with small movements.

“Ugh, that’s disgusting.” Pacifica put a hand in front of her mouth. “Here I was thinking I felt sick earlier, this is a whole other level.”

“What even is it?” Merrise asked, her face curled up, repulsed.

“I can hear it! The signal!” Andromeda rushed the creature’s side, then to Pacifica and Merrise’s horror placed a palm on the creature’s moist skin.

“Ann, what are you doing? I don’t think we should-“

“Please, be quiet!” The tone was harsher than Pacifica normally expected from her. Whatever she was sensing had her really shaken. Closing her eyes, she seemed to reach out and commune with the “We came so far looking for the call. It echoed across the stars to reach us. This _thing_ is what we detected.”

“You can’t be serious.” Pacifica wrinkled her nose at the sight of the fleshy mass spread out before them. A lump of flesh had brought them here? This whole space station was built around the monastery, and if this was at its centre then maybe it had a significance to the a-mortals.

Maybe, she dared to think, it was one of them. She’d seen a lot of strange alien creatures before, it wasn’t too unusual to expect at this point. The thing was like a rotting pupa, never to transform into a butterfly. Had it chosen this fate instead of the possibility of death?

Andromeda struggled to speak, fighting through all the noise to try and get something she could understand from the creature’s mind. “It’s a single-celled organism. No division, no confusion. Pure, unbroken thoughts. But so loud, like it’s screaming out at the universe.”

“I’m no biologist, but surely that’s impossible. One giant cell on this scale?” Pacifica reached out, then pulled her hand back from touching the thing herself. That was a line of weirdness she wasn’t about to cross. Even her pendant seemed averse, pushing away instead of towards the creature. As if they’d passed an invisible barrier and the poles had flipped.

Seeing Ann deep in concentration, interpreting the creature’s thoughts, put her in mind of Jheselbraum’s symbiotic relationship with the Axolotl. But where the Axolotl had felt fresh and youthful, constantly renewing itself, this creature was static, frozen in an everlasting decay. Ossified eternally, the only way it knew how to survive, by remaining as this unchanging horror. 

This was no mutual relationship. Andromeda looked pale, like she could collapse from exhaustion at any moment. The creature was parasitic, leeching off Ann just as much as she was extracting its thoughts. “I- I’m getting something. A name- no, wait, more primal than that. It’s… it’s…” Her eyes shot open. “The First.”

“And so it is!” Three heads turned upwards to stare at the new speaker. Andromeda removed her hand from the creature, too drained to carry on. A man in a neatly tailored suit stood above them on an upper balcony, arms outstretched. “All hail the First, for he has given us everything,” he said nonchalantly.

“Gabriel Crane.” Pacifica shook her head, already not happy with the turn of events that had led to the smug arms dealer showing up here. “Thought we’d left you far behind.”

“Mrs Pines, it’s been so long. I see you’ve picked up a little friend on your trip through the cosmos. It wasn’t a total waste of time then.”

Merrise sensed Pacifica’s unease. “This guy’s not another friend. Am I right Pacifica?”

“Mr Crane here sells weapons for a living. He’s also one of the a-mortals.”

“Weapons?” Merrise sounded like she was about to unleash a minor fury on Crane. “You’re just as bad as all those people who started the fighting on Tengosa!”

“That little backwater? Please, my ambitions are far beyond any single little world.” He started striding confidently down a staircase towards them. He was in control here. “That is why we have centred the project around his glory. The first being, our predecessor. His infinite majesty led us here.”

“You built the outer ring of the station around this monastery?” Pacifica asked. Crane nodded, still with a smug grin plastered on his face. “So how’d you make it out here? Last we thought your portal project was a bust. Mabel made sure you couldn’t scavenge our portal either, so you tell me how you got here.”

“Carelessness on the part of your dear sister-in-law. You were close to covering your tracks, I admit. We tore your tourist trap of a base apart looking for any shred of useful information. Then we found it and the way was opened!” It didn’t sound like he was going to give anymore clarity on the topic than that.

“Hey, you!” Merrise piped up, pointing an accusatory finger at Crane. “You built that big portal thingy down on the planet, yeah?”

“Oh, of course.” Crane didn’t spare any seconds before bragging more about his schemes. “The grand project to bring our multiversal brothers and sisters to gather and view the final moments. The end of everything.”

“And did you know about the Latropians?”

“The what?” Crane gave a short laugh. “I don’t have time for your nonsense girl. You are so very young after all. You’ve barely lived at all.”

“They’re the people who were living on that world!” Merrise leapt towards Crane, fists flying, and Pacifica had to restrain her. “They all died when the portal activated!”

Crane looked thoughtful for a moment, before figuring out what she was talking about. “Ah, you mean the infestation. Just a minor flaw in the early system. They’ve been cleaned out now for the final phase.”

“_Cleaned out_?!” Now Pacifica was getting angry. She pushed Merrise out of the way and started advancing on Crane. “They were people, living their lives and you wiped them out _by accident_?” She balled her fists, ready to let loose. “I nearly took you in a fight back on Earth. And this time I’ve got Andromeda here too, who can throw a mean paper-powered punch. You want to die so badly? Maybe I can help you get there early?”

She grabbed Crane by his overly neat collar, no longer caring that she was probably freaking out Ann and Merrise with how aggressive she was being. Scum like Crane deserved it. The man didn’t break his cool smirk however, remaining calm under the assault.

“Do whatever you will. It hardly matters. The First has ensured that the plan will come to fruition. All are gathered here at last and the portal is ready. It is an inevitability, looping round forever and ever like our lord.”

“Wait? You mean this monstrosity is meant to be your ouroboros?” She looked back at the First on its plinth, unconcerned with any of the activity that had occurred in the chamber. “Talk about not capturing the likeness. Now enough talk. You’re one of the higher-ups of this whole mad scheme, so you’re gonna tell us as much as you know.”

“I don’t think so.” Crane’s grin widened, stretching his all-too-smooth features and contorting his whole face into a freakish skull-like visage. Pacifica dropped him as the obsidian doors opened. The hooded acolytes she and Merrise had seen filed in and stood in two rows, faces still obscured. “The worshippers on this orbital monastery were very accommodating to our needs. After all, they’d already given themselves to the cause.”

The robed figures pulled down their hoods. Just when Pacifica thought there wouldn’t be any more surprises today, her mouth dropped open at what she saw. Every single one of the acolytes had completely blank faces, with no lines or wrinkles or individual features. They just had smooth skin, dragged unnaturally over their heads like someone had gone over them with an eraser.

Suddenly Pacifica felt like a massive storm was brewing inside her mind. A headache built up, until it was too much for her to bear. Filtered through the ranks of acolytes came the thoughts of the First, shifted to a frequency their brains could detect. She began to see how this thing could be broadcasting its thoughts across time and space, as the pressure mounted in her head.

Along with Merrise, she fell to her knees and clutched at her temples. Crane’s voice, sounding like it was coming from a far-off distance, was saying something about channelled thoughts and devotion. Only Andromeda stayed upright, strangely immune to the psychic attack. But she was powerless to fight back, outnumbered and unarmed. 

Then the few candles in the room suddenly flared out and died, plunging them into near darkness. Though the force acting on her and Merrise didn’t waver, Pacifica saw behind Crane a column of mist beginning to form. From out of the smoke and darkness came a grinning, bone-white face. “My turn for theatrics I think.”

A blast knocked the faceless acolytes over like bowling pins, removing the weight on Pacifica and Merrise’s minds. Andromeda helped them up as sparks of red light shot around the room. Crane panicked and ran to protect the First but was knocked down by another blast. The three girls ran to the door, where their saviour materialised out of the smoke. 

Bokamoso flashed a toothy grin and held the double doors open for them. “After you, my ladies.” He gave a dramatic bow, then the group ran off through the corridors of the monastery.

Pacifica held Merrise’s hand again, and as they ran called out to Bokamoso. “Potgieter, you goddamn madman! I’m starting to think I need to learn some of those spells myself!”

* * *

Mabel took a moment to stop by the entrance to the hangar they’d arrived in, checking it was still clear. No sign of any security yet. Her decision to run back this way had been pragmatic: of their small group she was the most well-equipped for dealing with any enemies she might encounter.

Assuming any patrol would soon pass this way, she stood in wait to ambush them and give more time for the others to get away and hide. Maybe it was foolhardy, rushing into the fray with only her skills on her side. But hey, what else was new?

As she attuned her senses, trying to be alert for anyone approaching, she heard a quiet voice in the hangar itself. She could barely make out that they were speaking and responding, but there was only a single voice. Creeping towards the spacious hangar, she quickly dropped all her caution when she saw who was there.

Standing with arms crossed and looking at the crumbling old ship was Candy. “No, I haven’t seen the occupants. They might have triggered the alarm we heard… no, I don’t need backup.”

“Your backup’s right here!” Mabel yelled, startling her friend, who shot of a string of curse words in Korean.

“Mabel! Is it you? The real Mabel, our Mabel?”

The question stumped Mabel, who held up her hands to calm her friend. “Well duh. Of course it’s me! I’m not Dipper, if that’s what you’re getting at. He and I do look kinda similar since we got this haircut.”

“I noticed,” Candy nodded, her thoughts clearly on something else. “It’s a bold look.”

“Thanks. You like it?” She ran a hand over her scalp and modelled for Candy. “I think it looks kinda rugged, like I’m a Mabel on a mission.”

“I preferred it a bit longer, this makes you look a bit scary,” Candy replied teasingly.

“Ooh, scary, meow. That’s a new one.” Mabel closed the gap and pulled Candy into a hug. “Come here you. It’s been too long. What are the odds of bumping into one another!”

Candy straightened her glasses and proudly explained. “The coordinates of the signal we were searching for were spatial, yes, but also temporal. So it makes sense, since we were all searching for the same place _and_ time, that we would arrive within a small range of possibilities.”

“If you say so, Cand. I’m just glad you made it through the portal, I’ve been worried about you guys. So how’s it been, did you travel alone, see many cool dimensions?”

“Hold on, I need to answer my comms.” She tapped the screen on the wrist of her survival suit.

“These suits have comms?!” Mabel started jabbing at her own wrist. “That would have been handy to know.”

“Our suits got a small upgrade when we stopped in a certain dimension a while back. Now please, a bit of quiet. Candy here.” A burst of static responded, and there was a quick back and forth that went too fast for Mabel to hear. Candy seemed satisfied, however. “We’re alright. Grenda has sealed the west hangar bay doors and Wendy and Quattro are just about to do the same for the south. Once I’ve finished up here, we’ll head to the east. Hopefully we can try and find Ann and Eli as well, we lost contact after our last warp."

While Candy went over to the wide bay doors to set about closing them, Mabel brought up the scanner on her wrist, hoping she might see Eli’s marker. She stared mouth agape when the display came up. It showed a rough outline of the space station and central spire, but that wasn’t the interesting part. No, it was the plethora of a coloured markers scattered about that made her heart soar. No longer was it just their small trio. It seemed all the others had made it this far too

Each marker was a different colour, and other than her brother’s and Pacifica’s she couldn’t tell who on the readout was who. One marker near another cardinal direction on the compass must be Grenda, in the west hangar. Two more halfway around the ring again; Quattro and Wendy. There was a small cluster in the middle of the ring – Mason and one other it would appear – another overlapping bunch together in the spire itself.

Seeing the map of the station reminded her of where the alarm had been set off though. She still expected a patrol to pass through any moment. As she was about to call out and warn Candy that they were in one of the most likely spots for a group of guards to suddenly descend upon them, she saw someone enter the hangar bay.

The guard wearing a heavy suit of metal armour charged towards her, shouting a battle cry and raising a curved sword high above his head. Instantly reacting, Mabel raised her arm and flicked her wrist, sending out a bolt of energy from her gauntlet. The attacker halted in his tracks. Her shot had been lucky, the pinprick blast cutting right through the centre of his armour and out the other side of his body.

The sword fell limply from his hands, and he fell to the floor, dead. She rushed over to him. The whole confrontation had been so quick she hadn’t had time to really register anything, it had all been instinct. She saw now that the man was Asian, dressed in samurai armour. Before her eyes, his face began to wither and age. He was an a-mortal, and whatever dark secrets had kept him alive were draining away. It was a reminder that underneath all the pomposity these arrogant gods could be killed as easily as any other person.

That didn’t make the act feel any easier on Mabel’s conscience. Just like Selchen, it brought her no joy to kill anyone, even if they were an enemy. Now at least she knew the stakes. These people wanted to kill everyone she’d ever loved. Not just that, but everyone alive right now, in countless realities. That made her feel a little more justified in what she’d done.

Then she realised there was only one guard. Probably a scout, and more would be on their way. “Candy, I think we should get out of here, now.”

Her friend’s eyes were fixed on the dead body. She was slightly shaken, but then shook her head. “No, I need to seal the doors. There are ships on their way, we’ll be overrun otherwise.”

“We’re gonna be overrun either way! I triggered an alarm down the corridor, we’ve gotta find somewhere safe.”

“_You_ set off that alarm? Why am I not surprised?” Despite the urgency Mabel had tried to convey, Candy was still fiddling with wires beside the wide opening into space.

There was an invisible pressure shield keeping in the air, so it looked like she was standing by the precipice of a wall of stars. Now Mabel could see the ships she had mentioned, pouring out of the portal and moving inexorably towards them.

“Got it!” A metal bulkhead rose up, blocking out the view.

“Good good, now let’s go, we barely have a head start-“

“Not so fast!”

They span around, seeing that the way out of the hangar was blocked. A figure stepped into the light, flanked on either side by two others. Mabel had to stop and shake her head. She must be seeing things. The lead figure marching towards them was identical to herself, or at least how she’d looked before her haircut. 

The copy was grinning smugly. “Now isn’t this a fun reunion. Poor, innocent little Mabel? Are you confused again? Good.”

“Anti-Mabel, but how!” Candy was noticeably worried now, trying to step back away.

The copy rolled her eyes. “Well I can’t play dumb with you, Glasses. You’re no fun.”

“Wait, Anti-Mabel?” The real Mabel felt a pang of recognition for her alternate dimensional counterpart. “I remember you. That was so long ago. You’re the jerkiest Mabel of them all!”

“Mmhm, and proud of it too. Although I hear you got a bit more exciting over the years. Looking at that a-mortal you took down I can see how. Nice work.”

She flashed a wink at Mabel. She just stuck out her tongue, repulsed. “Ugh, don’t ever compare me to you again. I know how bad you are. What the heck are you even doing here?”

“My kind benefactors pulled me out of the ice.”

“Ice?”

“The cryo-tube that _she_ put me in.” Anti-Mabel pointed at Candy, anger flaring across her face. “You wiped out my partner and left me to rot!”

“Yeah, we beat you!” Candy was more defiant now, having been reminded of their prior victory. “And we’ll do it again. You’re not so tough. Still scared of Wendy for whatever reason?” she taunted.

“Wendy’s not here though, is she. I’m not alone either. Come on in folks,” she called to the people beside her. Hetepheres, the Egyptian, and the Tool Maker backed her up. Already the Tool Maker was disassembling the broken-down ship Mabel’s team had arrived in, taking it apart remotely, piece by piece. Although it wasn’t as if they could have used the wreck to escape in any case.

“A shame, you mortals killed Nakatomi.” Hetepheres shot out a tendril of paper, dragging the body towards herself.

“You? You people are here too?” Candy hadn’t expected to encounter the a-mortals out here in space, but Mabel was already a step ahead.

“I figured you losers followed us somehow. An a-mortal on Lottocron knew our names. How’d you do it though? I left a big explodey surprise behind to go off after we escaped into the portal? And Pacifica brought Ford’s journals, so there weren’t any blueprints or anything.”

All three of their enemies had wicked grins. “Ooh, can I tell her?” Anti-Mabel asked. “You see, my dear opposite, it’s quite a simple answer how my new allies gained the portal tech. They found it in your Mystery Shack. In your bedroom actually. All written out in slightly messy handwriting, but legible nonetheless.”

“You don’t mean… no, it can’t be.” Horror started dawning on Mabel.

“Oh, but it can. Your scrapbook, Mabel. You wrote down several key bits of information the a-mortals lacked. Certain details and formulae, regarding certain Calculations for interdimensional travel. You probably wrote it down to remind yourself for later. A little mistake, but a costly one.”

“She was even kind enough to write down the encryption key for us,” Hetepheres added. “How thoughtful.” 

“I always forget them, ok!” she guiltily mumbled as way as explanation for Candy. “The little stuff Dipper told me that I wrote down? That was enough for you to finish your plans?!” It didn’t sound possible, surely the few scraps she’d transcribed weren’t enough to fill out the whole portal.

“There was some guesswork. Or course it took us a while to construct the finished project on top of that. But we had all the time in the world to do it. Now we are here, following in the First’s vision. So close to enacting his will.”

“Alright, that answers that question,” Candy said, “but why’d you salvage this monster?” She pointedly glanced at Anti-Mabel.

“I’m what you might call ‘hired muscle’. These a-mortals gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I mean, chaos on the scale of a giant portal? Sign me up!”

“Do you really know what they’re after though?” Mabel asked. “Don’t you care what will happen to everyone else?”

“Honey, I’m just repaying a favour. They pulled me out, I take you down. Tit for tat. They scratch my back…” She extended her wrist blade. “I scratch you meddling fools off my list.”

With her a-mortal posse, Anti-Mabel advanced on the pair. Candy was about to run, even though the door was blocked. Mabel stood her ground, keeping her eyes fixed on ‘Mabel’.

“Hey, you know what, Anti-Me?” Mabel suddenly called out. This was enough to make her duplicate stop momentarily, slightly intrigued what she could possibly have to say. “I am more… _exciting_ than when we last met.”

Summoning every ounce of practice and training she’d learnt from Bokamoso, Mabel held out both hands and screamed. Between Anti-Mabel and the a-mortals, a blinding barrier of white mist sprung up, keeping them separated. Using the confusion, she fired out her grappling line, but her copy was too quick and slashed out with her blade to cut the line.

Mabel was prepared for this, and while Anti-Mabel’s attention was on the line, she dove into her. The two Mabels wrestled together on the ground, neither one gaining much ground at first. They were too identical and knew each-others’ weak spots too well.

Then Mabel managed to get a hand around her other self’s forehead. Pressing her fingers into her temples, she called out a spell that reverberated through both their bodies. “Somnis!” The force of the spell knocked Anti-Mabel against the hangar floor. She was out cold. “Help me get her out of here Candy, we have to move now! She can tell us stuff, give us information.”

“Right, let me assist.” Candy slipped her arms under the parallel Mabel’s and lifted her up. Her own Mabel was puzzled at how Candy expected to lift her out of here, until her boots began to glow. Slowly, the gravity around them was cancelled, lifting her and her quarry up into the air.

“Woah! That’s one hell of an upgrade!”

Candy launched up and flew over the heads of the two a-mortals, still trapped behind the wall of mist. “Follow me!” The two of them rushed out of the now-sealed hangar, and Mabel set a course for the nearest huddle of traces on her scanner screen. There’d be safety in numbers as they figured out what exactly their next step was. At least they had a prisoner now, who might be either a source of knowledge or a bargaining chip. Either way, they’d have to keep a close eye on the dangerous version of herself.

Back in the hangar, the barrier Mabel had erected finally dissipated. The Tool Maker started in a pursuit, getting down on his knuckles, but the Egyptian called out for him to stop. “No, let them go. I think they’ll find their way on their own.” There was a small intercom by the hangar door that the bright young Miss Chiu had managed to lock shut. Not that it mattered. They still had no idea what was really going on. She spoke into the intercom, confidence unfaltering. “Crane? I’m advancing the schedule. Everything is falling into place.”

* * *

Arriving at the east hangar bay, Mason’s small party moved cautiously. There was a suspicious lack of any guard patrols. They chalked it up to the fact that the bulk of the a-mortals’ forces had yet to dock at the station and the four of them – two humans, a S’aren, and whatever Jheselbraum really was – got to work fortifying the corridor.

Mason had figured out the basic layout of the place now. The hangars were at four points around the outer ring, like a compass. Directly equidistant between each hangar and the next was a tube leading to the central monastery – a good design to prevent invaders charging in straight in after landing.

Strategy and time to come up with a forward plan was all he had right about now. He pulled out his journal, hoping to find something in all his notes from Jheselbraum’s teachings and what he knew of the a-mortals that could give them an edge. He was slightly nonplussed to see Zera bring out her own Journal, Bokamoso’s number 11.

Seeing his curiosity, she explained. “Bo taught me some basic spells while we were travelling. Defensive stuff, so I wouldn’t get hurt without a survival suit. I’m trying to figure out how to apply the same spell on this whole hangar, maybe block the entrance somehow.”

“Good call Zera. The rest of you,” he turned to acknowledge the Oracle and Eli. “Eli, keep watch, you have Society training. Jheselbraum, you do… whatever it is you do.”

He turned back to Journal 7, looking for a more permanent solution to this whole affair. His thoughts drifted back to the first time a portal had nearly destroyed the world. Back then they’d only saved the day by the skin of their teeth, by tricking Bill Cipher. Somehow he didn’t think they could pull an easy fix like that this time around.

Unless… there was always their failed attempt at forming the Zodiac. The supposed ‘Cipher killer’ that had ended up not working. The a-mortals had sought to hunt down those that fit the wheel, seemingly to put a stop to any pre-emptive measures. Yet whatever schemes they’d had there had come to nothing in the end. Maybe there was still a chance, a remote one, that the Zodiac could still be turned against them.

“It is a strong possibility,” Jheselbraum said, interrupting his train of thought. “I think it is time for the Eponymous to heed the call as one.”

“Excuse me? Wait, did you just read my-“

Mason was cut off when he suddenly heard Jheselbraum’s voice again, clear as day, but inside his mind. “Hear my voice. Seek this place. The gathered have walked the path, the disparate threads tied together at last. Now is the time.” The Oracles lips stayed shut, but her seven eyes each stared out in a different direction.

All three of them, Mason, Eli, and Zera, gawped at the Oracle in utter confusion. “What the hell was all that fancy gumph about?” Eli demanded to know.

“Oh, you heard that.” Jheselbraum was momentarily baffled by her own indiscretion, before moving on. “I was reaching out to all of the travellers in our pact. Those from Earth, those who joined along the way. They will come here, to the hangar.”

“All of them?” Zera asked, a note of hopefulness in her voice. “Even Mabel?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” Eli added. 

Mason could only shake his head, amused at how neither of his sister’s admirers knew they were competing with the other. “So when they arrive, does that mean what I think it means? We all hold hands in a circle and wish for world peace? It can’t be that simple.”

Jheselbraum was about to admonish him when her eyes snapped to a spot just behind him. “We’ll find out, once we’re all here.”

Mason had to suddenly leap out of the way, as he felt flames burst into life. Patting himself down, he saw that in the place the Oracle was staring, a column of fire was fading away, leaving Bokamoso untouched in its place.

“Bo!” Zera rushed to his side, glad to be reunited with her travelling partner after their brief separation.

“Ah, my friend. I see my searching ahead was unnecessary. You found your way to where we all seem to need to be all on your own.” He noticed Mason and Eli and gave a quick nod of greeting. “Andromeda said she heard a call, emanating out from here.” He then noticed Jheselbraum for the first time, and Mason thought his three eyes were about to pop out of their sockets with how wide his stare was. “Dear lady, what do they call you?”

Bokamoso deeply bowed, then took the Oracle’s hand and pecked a small kiss. She actually blushed in response, seeming totally out of her element. “I- uh, I am Jheselbraum the Unswerving. You are Bokamoso Potgieter. You like my eyes?”

“Like ‘em? Madam, I love them.” He winked with two of his eyes.

Mason rolled his two eyes. “Alright, enough with the meet and greet. Bo, where _is_ Andromeda? You didn’t leave the poor girl all alone?”

“She’s fine, she’s with your wife and a little pink girl. They’ll make their way here, no problem.” Mason was relieved to have that weight off his chest. “Now, about our present situation?”

“Ah yes, I was about to ask, Jheselbraum?” The Oracle had already moved away from Bokamoso to the centre of the hangar bay. She didn’t reply, instead she started muttering odd chanting under her breath. Upon the floor, symbols began to be engraved directly into the metal, carving out the basic form of the Zodiac wheel. “That’s a little more impressive than a can of spray paint.”

“What is she doing?” Bokamoso understandably asked. “The magic is impressive, but why draw random symbols?”

“Trust me Bo, they’re a lot more than random.” He then thought of the icebag, and even his wife’s llama symbol. “Well, ok, some of them are pretty random, I’ll admit. But this might be our only way to stop the giant portal out there.”

“It’s alchemy, I studied this.” Eli was intrigued by the symbols being etched before him. It was a chance to touch on the arcane lore he’d learnt through the Society of the Open Eye. “The symbols represent more than just lines in a wheel. They reflect parts of reality, mirroring a cosmic truth.”

“One small problem though.” Mason pointed to the slowly forming circle of symbols. “We don’t have all the members of the Zodiac. Robbie and Soos are all the way back on Earth, and we can’t exactly ring up McGucket, Gideon, or my Grunkles for help. Without them we can’t complete the ritual.”

Jheselbraum finished creating the wheel and shook her head. “You’re still thinking too much of the past, Mason. You must unburden yourself if you wish to see things clearly.”

“Easy for you to say, with seven eyes,” he mumbled back.

“As young master Potgieter knows, magic runs off symbolism. The image of a thing has as much power as the thing itself. If something _appears_ to fit the right criteria, then perhaps that’s enough for our purposes.”

“So hold on. You mean we can get _new_ people to form the Zodiac? The symbols can apply to more than one person?” It was a simple idea, but not something he’d ever considered before. There was suddenly hope again, a chance to stop the a-mortals in their tracks once and for all.

“All this magic stuff,” Zera said, looking down at the wheel, “It’s a lot to take in.” Mason’s eye drifted across to the Shooting Star sigil. Hadn’t Zera arrived in just that way, falling to Earth in a ball of flame? 

Wheels started turning in his mind, connections he hadn’t seen until now as he tried to mentally place each symbol with someone who embodied it. There was Bokamoso beside Zera. The magician with the extra eye, a perfect fit for the Pentagram.

“Woah, dudes! Didn’t think you guys’d be here.” The first of their fellow travellers had arrived, with Wendy showing up out of the air in her Black Hole armour. Mason ran over to greet her and saw Grenda and his young clone Quattro trailing just behind.

“You guys got Jheselbraum’s message,” Mason said.

“Kinda,” Quattro said. “It wasn’t like we heard a full message; it was just an… instinct, to head here. We were heading this way anyway, to meet up with Candy.” The three of them all shared a quick nod with Eli, glad to see he was unhurt.

Internally, Mason was overjoyed. Despite all of the Oracle’s talk of gathering everyone together, he hadn’t realised that she meant that all their friends had already made it to the space station. He quickly checked his wrist scanner and delighted at all the colourful lights moving in their direction. Finally the months of anxious worrying that some of their group might have failed to make it through the initial portal jump, or had been lost along the multiverse, could be put to rest.

“Hey, Dipper?” Grenda asked in her usual loud voice. “Who are your alien friends?”

He looked to Jheselbraum, who was staring off into space aimlessly again, and Zera, who was hanging back with Bokamoso. She seemed unsure of what to make of all the new people. Possibly it was more guilt that any of her past misdemeanours would cause them to look unkindly at her.

Mason first gestured at the Oracle, “This is Jheselbraum, I won’t try to give a full explanation cause it’ll take too long and be too weird. And this is Zera, she’s Mabel’s g- g-“ He choked on his words, remembering Eli was standing right there.

“Her what?” Wendy asked with a single raised eyebrow. Mason’s rapidly growing blush regarding talking about this subject clued her in pretty quickly.

“I’m her girlfriend,” Zera decisively said, ending all doubt.

“Her _what_?!” Eli spluttered out. This was going to be messy, Mason thought. Mabel and her crushes, always causing havoc.

He spoke quickly to try and avoid a long-winded discussion on the topic. “Zera met us in Japan, there was some lying and mistrust, but it ended on a good note. Then we met Zera again recently out in space, and she went off with Bokamoso. Now, guys, go stand over by that ring on the floor, there’s isn’t time to talk.”

He shuffled the bewildered group over to the Zodiac, thankful that Eli and Zera only shared a narrowed glance at each other, and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Psst, Mason,” Bokamoso asked, whispering into his ear. “Do all Mabel’s boyfriends and girlfriends end up betraying her?” 

“I mean, her first boyfriend was a stack of gnomes, so you might be on to something. Hey, look who it is!” Thankful of a distraction from Mabel’s complicated love-life, he was happy to see Pacifica, Merrise, and Andromeda arriving at the hangar bay.

“Dipper, you’re alright!” Merrise ran over and jumped into his arms. He felt an odd surge of joy and reciprocated with a tight hug. “We thought maybe the guards had got you!”

“Guards? We haven’t seen any guards yet.”

“Yeah, it’s odd,” Pacifica said. “Mace, we went to the central monastery. Gabriel Crane was there, and something else. A creature he called the First.”

“Pah!” Jheselbraum exclaimed, sounding more passionate than any of them had ever heard before. The assembled group listened to her, enraptured. “That _thing_ is not the first being. Merely the oldest. The one that outlasted all the competition. It’s not some divine ancestor worthy of reverence. It’s a remnant long past its natural time. It’s an abomination to the entire cycle of life.”

“And Andromeda could speak to it.” Pacifica put a hand on the sweater-clad girl, who still seemed a little shaken from the encounter.

Jheselbraum cocked her head and studied Andromeda closely. “Ah, the accidental creation. In some ways, you could be considered my offspring.”

Andromeda gave a half-smile, unsure how to take the all-knowing alien’s words. “Uh, that’s neat and all, but I have my own parents back home, thanks.”

“So why are we all here, Dipper?” Merrise asked. Mason was conscious that he was still clutching her in his arms, something Pacifica didn’t fail to notice either. Their bond with the girl really had grown into more than just friendship. She was becoming family.

Pacifica took Merrise from Mason’s arms, leading her over to the others gathered by the circle. “Come on little one, I think I know what’s going on. I’ve seen this in my dreams before.”

Mason stared dumbly at the pair of them for a moment, feeling an immense swell of emotion at the sight before Wendy lightly punched him in the arm. “It’s cool dude, you’ll make a great dad.”

“Oh… is it that obvious?” Watching the pair with admiration, he smiled to himself. Maybe there was a chance of a happy ending for his family after all. He had to chuckle when Merrise gave a brief outburst of ’another one?!’ on seeing Quattro.

Wendy clicked her fingers in Mason’s face and put her hands together in a prayer. “Now, about the big question mark we all have? Wanna explain our plan?”

“Oh right.” There was a sea of expectant faces. They’d all come a long way to get to this moment. “There’s a lot to explain, so I’ll wait ‘til everyone’s- oh, nevermind.” Mabel and Candy appeared in the doorway of the hangar. They were carrying a lifeless body between them. At first he had the horrible thought that it was one of their party, injured and dying. Then he saw that the woman they were carrying was another Mabel and was left totally perplexed. “What the-“

“Long story bro,” Mabel said bluntly. “Let’s just shove her over there, in the corner.” Candy helped her unceremoniously dump the still unconscious body.

“How many doubles do you guys have?!” Merrise shouted, looking from Quattro to Mason, Pacifica to Andromeda, and Mabel to her parallel counterpart. “It was hard enough telling you twins apart!”

“Yeah, care to give us some kind of explanation, sis?” Pacifica asked. She picked up on the other Mabel’s longer hair. “Is it time travel, is that your younger self or something?”

“That’s Anti-Mabel!” Quattro said in an excited tone. “What’s she doing here?”

“Anti-Mabel?” Pacifica replied with a sneer. “That’s ridiculous. What’s next, an evil Mason showing up with a beard? Actually I’ve lived that nightmare.”

“Anti-Mabel is a highly dangerous interdimensional criminal,” Candy explained in a serious tone. “My group encountered her a few weeks ago, she nearly succeeded in destroying a whole reality.”

“Look, there’s clearly a lot of missing information here.” Pacifica looked at Jheselbraum and Merrise, strangers to the bulk of their group, reunited for the first time since the rush into the portal months ago. And it seemed that a lot had happened with Candy’s group too. “I think we should all quickly share journals and fill in the gaps.”

There was a mutual agreement before moving on with the next stage, as everyone tried to get up to speed with the full picture while they took short shifts keeping watch. Candy’s group relayed their visit to the alternate version of Gravity Falls, while the Pines told them all of the reunion on Lottocron, how they’d come to travel with Merrise, and the secrets they’d learned on Dimension 52. The stories were told quickly, in basics, but at least everyone got an idea of what they’d missed.

Everyone seemed about ready to learn whatever plan Jheselbraum had to offer, but before that happened, both Eli and Zera came up to Mabel. They each had something very important to say to her. 

“Mabel.” They each did a double-take, having spoken at once.

She giggled, having already guessed that they both wanted to express the same sentiment. Spending months apart from both of them, wrestling with her doubts and unsureness meant she’d been preparing for this moment.

“It’s ok guys. I love _both_ of you, equally. I think once all this is over we can have a long talk and find something that works. Ok?” With that, she gave each of them a quick kiss on the cheek and strode off to say hi to Grenda and Candy.

“Well… how about that.” Eli looked at Zera, dumbfounded. “I thought she’d choose one of use.”

“I didn’t even know she had another relationship like that,” the fish-like alien replied

Mason came over to the pair to commiserate. “If I’ve learnt anything about my sister, it’s to always expect the unexpected. That’s Mabel for you. Now I think we’ve all had enough time to get reacquainted. It’s time to make the Zodiac.”

* * *

Around the circle of symbols etched on the hangar floor, the group awaited with reverence for Jheselbraum to take her place at the centre. “Some of you recognise the markings I have made on the floor below me. To others, this will be the first time you have seen them. But this is the Zodiac. It is our fate to be here together.”

She waved a hand, encompassing all 10 symbols as she spun around. “There is a matching person for each of these symbols. By linking together all of them, we can create a single unbroken chain. With that union, we will create an aura of psychokinetic energy powerful enough to undo all the damage from that twisted portal our enemies have crafted on the surface on the world below.”

Pacifica spoke next, taking up the challenge of explaining the strange concept. “For months – no, years now – I’ve seen these symbols. Every night when I sleep. I used to think it was a reminder or a metaphor: That we still had the power to stop whatever darkness was coming, just as we did before with Cipher. Now I see it’s much more real than that. It’s time to save the multiverse.”

Candy pointed to the sealed door of the hangar. “Out there that portal is building up to full charge. As the foremost expert in this technology, I estimate we only have a few hours before it builds up to the level where the aperture will be fully widened. At that point, the a-mortals will probably be able to use it somehow to rip apart reality. From what you told us, Oracle, they intend for there to be no survivors.”

“They’re finally doing it,” Eli said. “They finally decided that if death means the end, it might as well mean the end for everyone. The only way to make sure they have no more to lose than anyone else.”

From the corner of the room came a bitter chuckle. “Except you losers can’t do it.” Anti-Mabel sat, slumped against the wall with her hands bound. “You haven’t got a Zodiac, so boohoo. No apocalypse prevention for you.” She leant back smugly, confident in their defeat. “I’m sure Hetepheres or one of the others will be along any second to show you who’s really in charge here. You’ve got nothing.”

“Oh, but we do,” the real Mabel replied, matching the smug expression on her doppelganger. “We’ve got a new Zodiac brewing.”

“She’s right.” Quattro took a step towards the circle. He had his red cap in hand and was comparing the symbol on it to one on the ground. It was the same symbol that Stan Pines had once worn proudly on his Fez. All his life, Quattro had tried to emulate his Grunkle and now it seemed he was about to literally take Stan’s place.

“That’s just the start,” Pacifica said, nudging Andromeda and pointing at a symbol on the opposite side of the wheel.

“Who, me?” the clone said blankly. The symbol on the floor was the llama, identical to her own silver pendant. “Woah. It’s like destiny.”

All around the wheel, they took their places. Bokamoso holding Zera’s hand, Pentagram and Shooting Star side by side as they’d been on their journey through the multiverse. Candy honouring her mentor and standing on the symbol of the Glasses as McGucket had done.

Mason knelt down and holding out his palm gestured to Merrise. “You see where you fit in?” She excitedly gave him a high six, before running over to the Hand spot on the wheel and linking her six fingers with Quattro. Framed next to the clone, a miniature version of Mason who was actually shorter than she was, made her giggle noisily.

Eli reluctantly stepped up to the stitched Heart symbol on the ground, realising the significance. “Figures, after all I did.” He and Mabel shared a remorseful look before he too joined hands between Merrise and Bokamoso. “Time to put things right, for good.”

“Indeed, we’re nearly there.” Jheselbraum wandered over to the Question Mark symbol, her robes swaying as she went. “This is technically just a free space, but I’ll be happy to fill the gap.” Nobody was sure whether the Oracle, so often enigmatic, was joking or not, though a small grin did creep onto her lips.

“Hmph, and just like last time I have to sit on the sidelines,” Grenda muttered to herself. “Always the bridesmaid, etc.”

“Hey, at least you got me to keep you company, backslasher.” Anti-Mabel’s arms were folded as she surveyed the ring of hand-holders. “You don’t actually thin this’ll work do you? That’s precious.”

Wendy confidently strode forwards to the symbol of the icebag on the circle. “We can do it, and we’ll show you and your bosses how the Society does business.” She took Jheselbraum’s hand, leaving only one gap left in the ring of hands. She’d expected a change. With nine of the ten slots filled, Wendy thought they would start to feel the metaphysical effects. During Weirdmageddon they’d even started glowing with energy. But this time, even though they were so close, there was nothing.

Jheselbraum sadly wriggled out of her grip. Looking down upon her, she shook her head decisively. “I am sorry, Wendy Corduroy. But you have no place in this circle.”

“Excuse me?!” she angrily snapped. “I was part of it last time and it worked fine!”

“Things have changed since then. You may still be the same person, underneath, but you no longer represent this archetype.” That was the same reason the a-mortals hadn’t pursued Stanford Pines, Wendy recalled. They said he was no longer ripe enough for them.

“It’s because of this, isn’t it.” She gestured to the black helmet held under one arm. “I’m the Black Hole now.”

“Precisely. Your identity was consumed. You hid yourself from those closest to you and changed your very bearing on the cosmic stage. But perhaps that is the way it should be.” The Oracle looked to each of her fellow Zodiac members. “I think it would be best for this Zodiac to differ from the original. We represent change after all, compared to the rigid tranquillity of the a-mortals. New blood must flow.”

Wendy stepped back ruefully from the circle, a vacant expression on her face. All she could do was stare down at the blank mask in her hands and go and stand over by Grenda.

“But what are we gonna do now?” Candy asked, ever focused on the practical matters. “Who’s going to fill the slot?”

“Wait, I know!” Mabel said, shooting her arm up in the air, as if she needed permission to speak. “We have a spare! She’s perfect for that role”

Every head in the room turned to look at Anti-Mabel, still lazily reclining in the corner. “Who, me? You _cannot_ be serious.”

“Hmm, it does make sense,” Mason said, stroking his chin. “She was frozen in ice.”

“Well there’s no way in hell I’m joining your big love-in or singing kumbaya.” She sat rigidly upright, incensed at the very idea.

There was a moment where nobody knew what to do. They couldn’t force Anti-Mabel to stay in the circle, she’d break the link before it ever had time to properly build up. Finally Pacifica walked over and knelt down in front of her, determined to sort it out. “Let’s talk. May, right?”

“Call me Bel.” She narrowed her eyes, unsure of Pacifica. “What are you trying to do? I’m not about to change sides just cause you ask nicely. You’re a Pacifica, right? I’ve seen enough timelines to know that means you’re not the convincing conversational type.”

“Alright, Bel. You want to see the a-mortals plan brought to fruition. That’s your endgame?” The parallel Mabel nodded, smiling confidently. “Just like with Cipher, right? Burn down the old and rule over what’s left. That’s what they’d promised you?”

“Uh-huh. That’s it.”

“You do realise of course that you’ll be dying as well.”

“Wait, what?” Her smile finally dropped off her face. “The a-mortals want to live forever, why would they include themselves in all that destruction?”

“Because all that life, all that time, it’s not what it lived up to be. I’ve seen it.” Pacifica fiddled with her silver Pine Tree pendant, hesitant to dig up the memories. “In my dreams, so often. The burning, everything broken apart, every atom and quark, in every corner of the multiverse. But what’s worse is what comes after. Nothing. Absolute silence. Never again will life spread if the a-mortals have their way.”

“Wy though, why do they want to die? Surely that’s the last thing they’d want!”

“You ever been scared to die? Ever feared for your life and thought you everything was about to end? That’s how they feel all the time. It terrifies them down to the core. They know they’ll have to go eventually. So they’re all going to finally get some peace, as one. They won’t rule like Bill. They don’t want order, the want to tear it all down. Unregulated chaos and destruction, out with the old system. There has to be a balance.”

She looked first to Mabel, then to her husband. “Yes, acting for what you believe is a virtue, of course it’s right to stand up and not take crap. But if you take it too far, break the system too much, then you end up with nothing left at the end. No… future.” She stumbled over the last word, feeling too overwhelmed to carry on. She stood up and held out her hand. “So, Bel? Are you going help save your own skin?”

Anti-Mabel looked at the waiting ring of people, all imploring her to choose the right thing. She saw her opposite and Mason, who were both more uncertain of what she’d do. Then she saw Wendy. And Wendy winked back at her.

“Ugh, fine, whatever!” She held out her wrists for Pacifica to remove the rope bindings. “But this is a one-time only deal. I help you all not die, then I’m outta here.”

“Sounds good to me,” Pacifica said, smiling. She led Bel over to the ring, where she clasped the Oracle’s hand without hesitating. At once there was a bright flash as the hands connected, then a blue glow began to surround those holding hands in the circle. The symbols on the floor shone too, radiating a similar blue to light from the portal. Pacifica knew that feeling, that electric thrill running through her whole body. 16 years ago she’d been the one to complete the circle in the same way, by touching McGucket’s hand.

At last there was only a single space left to be filled. Between Candy and Anti-Mabel was the Pine Tree. “Who’s left then?” Eli asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

“Maybe not just a single person,” Bokamoso spoke up. “Maybe the final slot should be filled by the ones who started it all? That would be a neat way to bring things full circle. Very, ha, _symbolic_, if I do say myself.”

“Alright, I get the joke Potgieter.” Pacifica rolled her eyes, but grinned nonetheless. She reached down and held her silver pendant, then looked to the twins. “Together.”

“Together.” Mason, the original Pine Tree, put his hand on her shoulder. As always she had his entire support.

“Together.” Mabel did the same, removing her leather jacket first to show off the golden Pine Tree she had tattooed on her upper arm.

They were the Mystery Trio, the Pines. They would complete the journey they started at last. Pacifica grabbed Anti-Mabel and Candy’s hands, completing the loop. Beside them, Wendy and Grenda watched on as the blue glow intensified. A repeating hum began, speeding up the longer the circle was maintained.

“What happens now?” they heard Quattro shout over the build-up of energy

“Once the psychokinetic pressure builds to a maximum, we’ll be able to manipulate it to seal the portal on the planet below and stop the a-mortals for good!” Jheselbraum answered.

“We just have to hope that nothing interrupts us,” Mason said, grimacing.

At that very moment, the door to the rest of the station opened. Wendy and Grenda moved to stand in defence of the Zodiac, but the a-mortals filing in paid them no heed. Crane, Hetepheres, the Tool Maker, and other human a-mortals they hadn’t met stood in a row along the hangar wall. The only alien present was the Lottoqueen, selected to be here due to the unique circumstances of her meeting with the Pines.

“Me and my big mouth,” Mason sighed.

“They can’t stop us!” Pacifica shouted, “we’re so close, I can feel it.” Her pendant was being buffeted a strong wind now. They felt the energy flowing, all ten of them linked together.

“Your other forces won’t make it here,” Mabel said to the a-mortals. “We sealed the hangars.”

“You mean like this?” The Tool Maker lifted both his hands and the hangar bay door split open. The vast fleet of a-mortal ships was out there, hanging in orbit above the colossal portal, which was still casting a harsh blue glare.

“They’re just… sitting there.” Merrise said, confused.

“What do you mean?” Mason asked. “Surely that’s a good thing.”

“No, but why aren’t they docking? I thought that’s what they wanted?”

“Whatever gave you that impression.” Gabriel Crane stepped forwards, hands behind his back and a wicked grin on his face.

Mason stuttered a response. “But this is an observation platform, for watching the portal. I thought-“

“You thought wrong.” Crane took another step forward, and Grenda and Wendy moved to block his approach. Then he suddenly stopped and started clapping slowly. All the other a-mortals joined him in a mocking applause.

“Well it doesn’t matter, ignore them.” Mabel tried to sound in control, but there was something off about the whole thing.

“Hey, is anyone else feeling really nervous about now?” Quattro was squirming, anxiety overwhelming the poor clone. “I can’t let go!” He tried to wriggle free of Merrise’s grip but found himself glued to her hand.

Everyone else started panicking and trying to let go of their neighbours’ hands, but it was a pointless. They were fixed in place. Neither Mason nor Mabel could release their hold on Pacifica’s shoulders – they too were trapped as part of the Zodiac.

“What’s going on?!” Merrise was just as terrified as Quattro beside her now. “Dipper, I’m scared!”

“Hold on, we must be nearing the apex, we can still stop the portal!”

“Something tells me we’re way past that!” Bokamoso shouted. His third eye was fixated on the a-mortals, while his normal eyes looked to the portal. “It’s coming.”

The a-mortal ranks split in two to allow a vast platform to glide forwards, upon which sat the hideous mass of the First. The Zodiac members suddenly writhed in pain, feeling a horrible sensation throughout their entire bodies. Grenda and Wendy watched, helpless to intercede. Even Jheselbraum was powerless, unable to anything but suffer along with the others

Pacifica had an epiphany and tried to speak through the pain. “Wait. Earlier Crane talked about ‘everyone being gathered’. I thought he was talking about the other a-mortals, but I was wrong. He was talking about _us_!”

“You damn traitors! I trusted you!” Anti-Mabel called out! “Bastards! You promised me worlds!”

“That’s why they brought Anti-Mabel here too,” Pacifica continued, “Not to get her to help them defend this place, but because they _knew_ she would be part of the Zodiac!”

“Well done Mrs Pines,” Crane sarcastically said. “You’ve got it all figured out, right at the end. All tied up in a neat little bow. Our brothers and sisters out there in their ships will have a prime view when all of this goes up. The First will herald our last moments. It’s always been this way. We make the rules.”

“Mabel, I can’t-“ Zera called out, before the pain became too great.

“Zera! No!” Nothing Mabel said or did could halt the inevitable though, as the First leeched off their massed energy.

Tears pricked at Pacifica eyes. She knew what was coming next. It was all their fault despite everything they’d done to avoid this moment. The burning was about to start.

The a-mortals fell silent at last, all holding their hands up in a prayer to await the coming end. The light surrounding the circle shone brighter and brighter, and soon Wendy and Grenda couldn’t even see their friends through the glow. The power from the Zodiac, twisted by the First fell back upon them, creating a feedback loop that would never stop. The light became so hot and intense that it began to tear through the circle, shredding the gathered travellers into dust in seconds.

Wendy and Grenda tried to run, to escape the inevitable, but there was no point. In moments they too were covered by the light, which spread faster and faster. Crane and the other a-mortals were next, then the First itself, revelling in their mutual destruction. The burning didn’t stop until the entire space station was gone. Further still, out across the fleet of ships, filled with willing onlookers to the destruction. Beyond that, until the vast portal below and the planet it was carved into were wiped away. On and on, destroying planets and stars, galaxies and nebulae, dimensions and timelines.

After it was over, there was nothing. Just silence.


	40. The Last

Pacifica Northwest jerked awake, sweating and breathing hard. She sighed and rubbed her eyelids, leaning back in the large four-poster bed. Another nightmare. This dream had been the same as usual; of far off worlds and supernatural creatures. Solving mysteries in space as part of team. A glowing inverted triangle staring down at her. Standing in a circle holding hands with a bunch of strangers.

Fanciful nonsense her brain kept conjuring up for some reason. She was awake now. She might as well get to work. As she swung her legs off the bed, she felt an odd twinge of loneliness. The empty space on the sheets beside her felt colder than usual. She shrugged it off and got dressed.

Downstairs in the luxurious manor she found her study and opened her ledger with the golden llama adorning a pink cover. She turned to the latest page, stopping to briefly play with the tassel of her bookmark; it was old hair-tie she’d once given sentimental value to for some reason. Her mind felt distracted today, so she played aimlessly around with the string for longer than usual.

Eventually the call of work became unavoidable. She picked up her pen and began to add the latest entries to the ledger tables, tallying up all the recent trades the company had undertaken. Business, as always for her family, was booming. Running a successful company took precision and quick-thinking, traits her parents had trained her for her entire life.

Later today there would be meetings with the heads of other companies in the area to discuss the latest updates to trade regulations, then in the evening another one of the Northwests’ famous gala balls at the manor. Her attendance was mandatory at such events, of course.

She gave a loud sigh, expressing a measure of weariness with the whole enterprise. This was her life, day in, day out. A routine had set in without her even noticing, and now she was trapped in the boundaries of a normal life. Not a hard life, or sad life, but an ordinary one. Cooped up in here when she sensed there was so much more out there in world.

Her daydreaming was interrupted when she felt a stab of pain from her lower belly. She clasped her stomach with her free hand. Great, another bout of stomach cramps. At least she was thankful not to be vomiting.

This was unfortunately part of the routine too. The dreams and the stomach-ache. Her life was just one annoyance after another. As the pain faded, she took some deep breaths, vowing to get back to work and power through the morning without further disruptions. While her mind had been wandering though she noticed now that she’d been idly doodling in the margins of the ledger. Odd symbols she didn’t recognise, like looping snakes or upside-down triangles. 

She flipped back through the last few pages, seeing that she’d drawn similar patterns in the past. Symbols vying for space on the paper, shooting stars and pentagrams beside oddly shaped hands and colourful red hearts. And trees, lots of trees, for some reason. The one design she’d sketched she sympathised most with were the question marks. Her life recently felt like one big question.

She set her pen down. Why was her mood so moribund today? “Open your eyes,” she said to herself. “This is the way things are.” It was an attempt to reassure herself, but the words were hollow. Her heart wasn’t in them.

There was a short battle in her mind. Part of her was stating loudly and authoritatively that she should know her place. She should stay here and finish her duties. Then there were all the preparations for the meetings and the party. Her parents were expecting her to uphold the family name.

But maybe, just maybe, a walk out among the pines would help clear her head?

* * *

As always in Gravity Falls, the woods provided excellent solace from her daily routine. Out here you could lose yourself for hours. Pacifica took a winding path through the trees, heading nowhere in particular. Just to get out and breath the fresh air was enough. Though summer was fading away, there was still a lingering warmth. A remnant of happier times.

Her parents would likely reprimand her later. Gallivanting off for no reason was likely to cause them to bring out the cursed bell. Her mother wouldn’t let her be seen dead in the manor if she got mud all over her boots.

Yet deep inside she knew she loved hiking. Exploring new trails, being up close with the beauty of nature. Feeling life blooming all around her was a revelation compared to the stuffiness of her study. The only thing missing was some good company, someone to talk to. Hers was a solitary life. Usually those feelings were subdued, but today she was feeling oddly maudlin about the whole topic.

At one point she came upon a fallen log blocking the path, rotting and dead. But here too the forest was already visibly returning to life, with new shoots sprouting among the twisted bark. They were breaking down the old titan, converting its mass into nutrients to fuel growth. The cycle of life, ever present, carrying on regardless of who saw or cared about it.

It was like the mysteries of the valley. Oh, her parents tried to ignore all the weird creatures, implicitly stating that she should do the same, but she wasn’t blind. They were everywhere, with their little magical communities and hideaways. She still didn't know the why of the valley; what drew creatures here or fostered the strange atmosphere. She was doubtful anyone would ever know that fact for sure.

The chirp of birds and the bright sunshine reminded her that there was more to Gravity Falls than the abnormal though. It was a haven, an isolated place which despite the mysteries and the potential horrors was one where she could feel at peace.

Except… She could barely hear it but knew something was off. A second set of footsteps, almost in time with her own. Matching her pace, following behind. The tiniest out of place detail, but it was enough for her to notice.

She deliberately halted. Her echo also came to a stop, slightly delayed. Walking onwards again, the double stepping resumed. So she _was_ being followed.

Acting casual, she glanced over her shoulder. There was nothing behind her that she could see. Relying on her eyes was out, she’d have to hope her other senses were up to the task. Quickening her pace, she listened out to hear her shadow do the same. It was oddly quiet now, like the sounds of nature were being drowned out by her focus. Even the birdsong had gone silent.

She veered off through a side-path, one blanketed with leaves. As she heard the satisfying crunch under her feet, she became even more certain that someone was close behind. Snapping off a nearby small twig, she let it fall and stepped over it. Moments later she heard the crack as her pursuer stepped on it. No denying it now.

With a quick sprint she rushed behind a tree. The footsteps sped up, chasing her down, but she held her ground, back pressed up against the bark. The sound of the pursuer came close… then passed her entirely. The footsteps carried on then petered out a small way forward.

Pacifica edged around the trunk, trying to minimise the sounds she was making. Her bright idea to make the invisible pursuer easier to track had backfired now, with every small movement rustling the leaves beneath her feet. She realised it was already hopeless, as the relentless stomp of leaves returned, heading right for her.

Instinctively she grabbed the nearest tree branch she could find, raising it up above her shoulder like a club. “Alright whoever you are! Come out and face me! I’m tougher than I look!”

“Oh, Pacifica.” The voice seemed to come from all around her, deep and synthetic. “That’s not a very nice way to greet an old friend.” A figure in all black suddenly stepped out from behind another tree. 

No, Pacifica told herself, trying to overcome her eyes’ shortcomings. She stepped into visibility from _in front_ of the tree, shimmering out of the air. The armour they wore was darker than any black she’d ever seen before. She couldn’t make out any detail whatsoever, like it absorbed the light that fell upon it.

“Stay back! I’ll use this!” She tried reading the opposing figure’s emotions, but a blank face mask meant she had to rely only on body language. They had their arms crossed and shrugged their shoulders lazily.

“Is that how you want to play it? One last chase, just like old times?” Well, if you insist, blondie.” They were treating her like a joke, laid-back and uncaring.

She’d show them what she was capable of. Screaming wildly, she lunged at the armoured stalker, swinging the branch. They shimmered again, fading from view. Pacifica caught glimpses of them, running in front of the trees and temporarily flashing back into reality. Then they were gone again.

The branch was suddenly yanked from her grasp and she toppled over onto the ground. The figure blinked into view right beside her and tossed the makeshift weapon away. “The old tricks are the best.”

“I concur!” Pacifica slung a handful of soil and dirt up at her attacker, staining the black armour. They reeled back and tried to disappear again. But enough of the dirt left a mark, so Pacifica could see them now, even as they tried to hide.

The attacker ran at her, but she was able to dodge them, rolling to one side. She dived back to the ground, scrambling in the mud for the discarded branch and dirtying her legs. Success, she clutched the wooden club. Crouching over, she once again listened for her enemy’s approach.

Footsteps hurtling at her. The perfect bait. At the last second she spun round, hefting the branch with all her weight. It impacted the invisible figure, sending splinters flying. There was heavy thud as her opponent fell down, defeated.

Feeling incredibly overwhelmed, Pacifica dropped the branch and ran away as fast as she could while the stalker was stunned. She couldn’t run back to the manor, that would be too obvious. She tore through the bushes, veering about madly trying to put more distance between herself and the terrifying hunter.

Bursting through into a clearing, she saw a wooden cabin laid out before her. Instantly she felt like she’d be safe if only she could reach that Shack. It was creaky and falling apart, but it was also inviting.

It was home.

She slammed up against the door, fumbling for the door handle. Inside she somehow knew she’d be safe, inside nothing could hurt her, not this bizarre terror chasing her, not her parents, not the a-mortals-

“I wouldn’t open that door if I were you.” Slowly Pacifica pivoted around. The clearing seemed empty, but she knew that was false. The armoured figure flashed into view, standing exposed between the trees and the Shack. “Seriously, take it slow. Don’t do anything rash.”

“How did you track me?”

“Wasn’t hard. I just followed the smell of your perfume.” Once again they weren’t taking her seriously. She was being treated as a confused child.

Pacifica tightened her grip on the handle. “You’ve haunted me for long enough.”

“I’m not here to hurt you, Pines. Remember what happened before. It’s started to bleed through, I know it.”

“Pines? That’s not- who are you!?” She shouted out, demanding answers. Her thoughts became a jumbled mess. She saw flashes of her dreams again, fighting for dominance with what she thought were her true memories of living with her parents in the manor. Triangles and circles and snakes and seven eyes and spinning silver.

The dark figure saw her obvious discomfort. “Alright Pacifica. You want answers? This time I can make the right choice.” She heard a deep modulated breath, before they removed their blank mask with a click. Underneath was a freckled woman with short, spiky red hair, smirking at her. “Hey, it’s me. Wendy. This time around I can be honest with you, how about that?”

Pacifica cocked her head to the side and squinted at the stranger. It was like something was on the tip of her tongue, just beyond comprehension. She had an unavoidable memory of this person that refused to rise to the surface.

Turning away without a word, she opened the wooden door. Inside the Shack there was nothing but a blank white void. And at last Pacifica remembered who she really was.

* * *

Mason didn’t know how long he’d been in the cave. He remembered the cold metal of the hangar being swept away by the searing light, then awakening in this dank, warm, enclosure.

All he did know was that he was entrapped, with a fleshy sac covering him up to just over his shoulders. It was like whatever the floor of the cavern was made of had grown up to confine him. It was tense, like a living muscle wrapped around his body. He was grateful that underneath all the gunk he was still wearing his survival suit, insulating him from the worst.

This shouldn’t be happening, none of it. Everything was supposed to be gone, wiped away just as their enemies had always intended. He’d been just as blindsided as everyone else, but the sting of defeat was no less harsh despite this strange reprieve he found himself in. There was no sign of the others, who they’d strived for long to reunite with. He was alone, illuminated infrequently by flashes of light that coursed across the cavern ceiling.

“Still not the weirdest place I’ve woken up in.”

To his immense relief, he wasn’t alone in the cave. Right beside him, blearily blinking open her eyes, Mabel was just as trapped as he was. Except the sac covering her only went up to her chest, leaving her upper arms free.

“Mabel, thank god you’re here. See if you can wriggle out far enough so you can use your gauntlet. You might be able to free us from these… whatever they are.”

“Woah!” His sister was naturally taking some time to figure out their situation, but quickly started to apply herself to their escape. Mason watched her sac ripple as she tried to flex her wrist under the skin. There was a bright flash beneath the translucent surface, and the aroma of roasting meat wafted over to Mason. After a few seconds, her hand burst out triumphantly, allowing her to tear the rest of the flesh away. She shuddered when she finally broke free. “Glad to be out of that. I don’t like fresh meat at the best of times.”

She hurried over and aimed her wrist halfway down Mason’s sack, firing a constant beam of blue energy to cut him free. “This is certainly a surprise. Still being alive and all that. I thought we were all goners. Where are we, Dip?”

“It could be some kind of conceptual space.” Mabel rolled her eyes and gestured for him to go on. “A realm where possibility becomes physical. Like the Dreamscape.” He suddenly felt a hot blast as Mabel’s ray veered upwards and hit him in the shoulder. “Ow, watch it!”

“Sorry, my mind was going blank listening to you explain.” She aimed the beam back down, slowly forming a seam she could break through. “Seriously, it’s like ASMR when you’re in the ‘research zone’, I could fall asleep to it.”

“Yeah, well please don’t. We need to figure out what’s going on, fast. The whole of reality might depend on it. Not to mention-”

Mabel knew from his anxious tone that he was worried about one person in particular. “We’ll find her and the others as soon as you’re out, I promise. Hey presto!” Mabel tore half the sac away like a curtain, allowing Mason to step cleanly out. The cave felt soft beneath his feet. Mabel, looking around for exits to the wide circular dome they’d mysteriously arrived in, started throwing questions at her brother. “This is definitely not that space station anymore. We’re not back on the planet with the Wall or something are we?”

Mason shrugged. “Who knows. I think this is more alive than anything down there.”

“I still can’t believe it. Those people, the Latropians, had horrible, meaningless deaths. The whole giant portal thing was just an expensive charade to get us all together in that room to form the Zodiac. It’s no wonder we weren’t interrupted sooner by any guards.”

“Those a-mortals are truly callous. Or is it ‘were’ now?” He paused, deep in thought.

“Are you being for real, bro? Don’t start telling me that me and you are like the last people alive or something!”

“I don’t know, we can’t ignore any possibilities.”

Mabel leant on her brother’s shoulder, trying to playfully unbalance him. “All I know is: next time Pacifica has bad dreams, just buy some earplugs, ok?”

“Yeah yeah, curiosity killed the cat and all that.” Mason pushed her back off, grinning. It may look hopeless, but nothing could ever dampen Mabel’s spirits. He finished panning around, wishing he had a torch but being certain of one thing at least. “I don’t see any exits to this place.”

“We got in somehow,” Mabel offered, “that must mean this place isn’t totally sealed. Come on, we’re the Mystery Twins, we can get through anything!”

“Even the complete destruction of the multiverse?”

“There’s a first time for everything,” she said with a wink.

Mason grinned to himself, then squeezed Mabel’s arm. “You know, even if this is the end, I just wanna say: I’m so glad you’re my sister. I mean, really, reconnecting these past months has been great-”

“Yeah, that’s great and all Dip,” Mabel rudely interrupted, holding up a hand, “but can you shut up for a sec.”

Mason laughed awkwardly. “Uh, I’m trying to have a moment here? You know, being sincere and all?”

“Hush! I hear something.”

Immediately Mason was refocused on their surroundings. There wasn’t much to hear. Each other’s breathing, a soft echo with each step they took, but not much else. Then he heard it. A quiet noise like something zipping past.

“There!” Mabel pointed at another flash of lighting flickering from behind the wall of the cavern. Mason watched it flare up and fade. As he listened close, he heard more sounds of the flashes flying by.

Across all the smooth walls of the cave, the bolts of electricity began to increase in number, zooming in random directions. “This whole place is lighting up like a string of firecrackers!” Mabel excitedly said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s something at least. That’s gotta be a good sign, right?”

“Something’s better than nothing I guess. It’s like this place is coming alive… or waking up.” The electric flashed gathered at the back wall of the cavern, lighting it up almost as bright as the sun. Mason realised it wasn’t like the rest of the cave. It was made up of a denser fleshy material than the rest of the surroundings, with multitudes of folds. The light began to die down, adjusting to a more tolerable level for the twins to be able to see it clearly.

They found themselves, against all odds, staring at a giant brain. It dwarfed them in size. Whatever creature it belonged to must be enormous. “We must be inside the cranium of some giant _thing_. Inconceivable, and here I was thinking the destruction of everything wouldn’t be a starter for yet more weirdness.”

Mabel reached out, as if to touch the pulsing electric muscle, but gingerly pulled back. “You think it could be something to do with that gross worm thingy, the First?”

“No, this is too normal – strange as that sounds. The First was a big blobby cell, there was no sign of these complex muscles. This is just… a brain. Almost human, by the look of it.”

Mabel tapped her foot on the cavern floor, shrewdly narrowing her eyes. “So the obvious next question: Whose brain are we standing inside?” She giggled to herself on hearing that said aloud. “That’s a new sentence for sure.”

Mason shook his head, acutely aware of his own brain sat inside of it. Before he could offer any theories, two bright shafts of light appeared. Two slits had opened on the wall opposite the mass of brain. 

Peering through the glare, Mason saw bright blue sky and green trees. “You know, just when I though there could be any more surprises…”

* * *

“I remember it all! The journals, travelling the world! The twins, oh my god, the twins!” Pacing rapidly back and forth in the clearing, a flood of words escaped from Pacifica as she came to terms with everything. “The portal, the Zodiac, the a-mortals… the Open Eye… the Black Hole- you!” She pointed an accusing finger at her companion’s chest.

Wendy flashed an innocent smirk. “Who, me? I’m just the messenger.”

Not backing down, Pacifica advanced on her. “You’d better start explaining what’s going on, Red, or I might just whack you with another branch.”

“Ok, ok, calm down dude. I’m here to help after all. I don’t have all the answers, but I can try to explain. It’s you who’s the real mystery.”

“Me?” Pacifica strained her mind, feeling like she was still missing something. “That’s it, I remember. We’re dead.”

“Now, hold on-“

She ignored Wendy’s attempt to deescalate her rambling. Muttering to herself, she felt her insides twisting into a knot. “This must be the afterlife. We all died, everyone. Not just you and me, but everyone! Even little Merrise! That poor girl died, all because of me. Because we followed my stupid dreams. It all led to this.”

Wendy’s hands roughly fell upon her shoulders, and she tensed up and flinched, expecting another attack. But the redhead simply locked eyes with her and stilled her racing heart. “No, Pacifica, listen. You’re just as much a victim of this as anyone. It wasn’t your plan to kill of the whole multiverse, now was it?”

“No,” she quietly replied.

“Right. It was those old bastards, the a-mortals, they tricked us. You’re not responsible cause they outsmarted us this once. Huh?”

Pacifica brought herself back to the present moment, trying to calm herself with deep breaths. She was aware of Wendy’s armoured hands, clamped on her shoulders and the comforting look on her face. How did the redhead always manage, no matter the situation, to not let it get to her?

Pacifica also noticed things about herself she’d somehow overlooked, like the disc containing her hopper and survival suit still attached to her wrist, or her silver Pine Tree pendant around her neck. Her mind must have blocked anything out that didn’t make sense in this fantasy.

“Are you ok now?” Wendy asked, raising her smile slightly to get Pacifica to do the same.

She gave a deep nod. “Yeah, I am. Thanks.”

“Any time. Now it’s our turn to strike back and show our enemies who we are.”

Pacifica suddenly felt something else she hadn’t realised she’d been missing up ‘til now. Hope. A spark of excitement flowed through her again. There was a chance this wasn’t the end. “Alright. Let’s take it slow, one thing at a time. First up: What is this fake place?” She opened her hands wide and pointed at the Mystery Shack, identical, as far as she could tell, to the original. “Another dream? I have a lot of experience with those.”

“Yet you never went up against Bill Cipher on his home turf.” Wendy shook her head and gave a weak laugh. “Lucky you.”

“I was turned into embroidery by that yellow abomination.” She added quietly, “So were you. And if we’re going to get out of this we need to work together. So let’s start with you explaining what’s going on here.” Pacifica fixed her with one of her traditional stern gazes, before quickly remembering that wouldn’t work on her.

Wendy hadn’t seemed to notice or mind, as she was too intently focused on staring at their surroundings. “Like I said, you’re the one that’s holding all this together. You remember now, your happy Zodiac wheel, back before we found out that First being or whatever could hijack the feed?” Pacific nodded. “Well, by all rights that should have been it.”

Wendy mimed an explosion with her hands and made a wooshing noise. “Boom, kapow, kaput. Bye bye all of reality.”

“But I guess something else happened instead. That’s why we’re standing around here talking.” Pacifica pressed her boot against the soil, wondering now if it were truly there or not. “I don’t remember how I got here. One minute in space with the others… next minute in my study, here in Gravity Falls.”

“Well, first things first: This isn’t Gravity Falls.”

“No duh,” she shot back, “I figured that much out. Like we’d just end up back home none the poorer for our trouble.”

“I dunno.” Wendy shrugged. “It’s not too out there to end up in some copy or alternate version of the town. But this is less than that. Think about it. Have you seen anyone else here? Anyone at all?”

“Of course,” Pacifica said, instantly doubting herself the second the words left her lips. She straightened up and carried on, trying to reassure herself as much as Wendy. “I saw my parents earlier; I know I did. There was all the work I had to do, all the planning for the party…”

Yet still the doubt nagged at her. All the while, Wendy’s smug grin burned into her, shaking her confidence even more. She thought as hard as she could, trying to conjure up any solid images from before waking up that morning, but came up blank.

Seeing her confusion, Wendy finally put her out of her misery and interceded. “It’s ok, it’s hard to see from the inside. But there is nobody else in this place. No people except you and me.”

“Of course. I mean, you’re right!” She said it louder, trying to will herself to see the truth. “I haven’t seen them in years. Not since… the wedding. Wait – Mason! How could I forget him too?!” Images of the man she loved flashed before her in rapid succession, and she clasped her head as it felt close to bursting. From their first fleeting encounter to the night of Northwest party, to their first kiss, all the way up to the tragedy of their attempt to start a new life together and their recent trip around the world, she saw it all play out on fast forward.

Wendy put a hand on her shoulder again as she came down from the rush of memory. “You’re seeing more and more, that’s good. I had a leg up, you see. All my training with the Society helped me see through illusion.”

“Perception is reality,” Pacifica mumbled, remembering the mantra that Hetepheres had tried to drill into her in Egypt. ‘Control the way you look, and you control the way people see you,’ those had been her words.

“That’s it, that’s how I’ve been able to get to you so fast.” She could tell Wendy was impressed. “You already know all about that, growing up the way you did.”

“So, what was it like for you?” Pacifica asked in reply. “If you’ve got this all figured out, tell me what’s going on.”

Wendy frowned, and she detected a hesitance to touch on the subject. “When I woke up after the light from the Zodiac swept over me, I was… alone…” The sunny sky and puffy clouds up above in this perfect recreation of their shared home darkened. Even the sound of the wind through the trees faded, until there was a perfect, haunting silence.

Wendy continued, speaking to herself more than Pacifica, and eyes glazing over as they stared off into the distance. “There was nothing at first. But I was alive, I knew that. I knew I had to piece myself back together and understand what had happened. That wasn’t easy.”

Bending over, she picked up the blank, faceless helmet of her armour. “The Black Hole… it’s not just a fancy space name for the branding. It’s not even for intimidation. It’s the feeling I had, deep in the pit of my stomach, every time I went hungry for scraps. Every time I failed to be anything more than a homeless wreck, with no future. That’s the real Black Hole. My failure.”

Truly, Pacifica had never known a life like that. Even when her parents had turned cold she’d had friends to turn to. For Wendy, that period in her life was empty of compassion and love. The only meaning she’d been able to find was in the arms of the Society.

“My identity,” Wendy went on. “So strong I was able to claw myself back into existence and find the only survivors of the cataclysm. The Zodiac members, your Oracle’s so called ‘Eponymous’. You’re the only ones who made it. Grenda’s gone, the a-mortals, gone. Everyone who was outside the circle is gone.”

“Except you.” Pacifica’s tone was soft, trying to let Wendy know she was there, and that she empathised what she’d gone through. It was all she could do. “Look, Wendy. You’re not just a tool for the Society anymore. I won’t call you my friend – you know me enough to tell when I’m lying – but you are an ally, someone I trust.”

Her companion gave a hollow chuckle. ““I don’t know if I deserve that. I spent so long denying who I was. I made it my duty to cause you and the twins to suffer at my hands. Now I’m trying to atone for that, anyway I can.”

“That’s all I ask for. We’d better get started.” She looked around the clearing, then turned back to Wendy and apologetically smiled. “Not that I know what in the hell to do now. So, Corduroy, it looks like the fate of everything is on your shoulders.”

“Nuh-uh, Pines, it’s not that easy.” A smirk returned to Wendy’s face, and the surrounding forest lit up again. “You’re at the heart of this whole mess. I think it’s time we went inside.”

Pacifica followed Wendy’s gaze to the wooden structure at the clearing’s centre, right through the main door into the empty nothingness within. “I thought you said I shouldn’t do that?”

“I think you’re ready now. You’ve accepted reality enough. After you, milady.”

Pacifica overlooked the jibe and went over to the threshold, where the realistic wood of the porch abruptly ended and fell away into the white void. Taking a deep breath, she planted her foot over the boundary and confidently set it down. She breathed a sigh of relief. She had expected to fall into some endless nightmare but was instead standing calmly on the other side.

She turned back to Wendy, ready to gesture her to come and join her, but found that the facsimile of Gravity Falls had vanished. The armoured redhead was already standing with arms folded in the blank space. 

“So why’s there nothing in here?” Pacifica called across.

“Maybe it’s your subconscious mind, knowing it can’t truly be safe right now. The inside of the Shack would be too welcoming.” Wendy shrugged. “Nevermind, it’s not too important. We need to put all our effort into finding everyone else. If we can pull them all back together, we can reform the Zodiac.”

“And have a shot at undoing all the destruction.” Pacifica didn’t know much about the Zodiac, but the way Jheselbraum has hastily described it gave her some hope they could use it for something more than the original intention. Though, why they’d been spared in the first place was still a mystery. 

“I want to find the twins first,” she blurted out. It was more than just their connection though, that bond forged over so many years together as a trio. If anyone could help her understand their current predicament, it would be Mason with his knowledge and Mabel with her compassion. They would help her see the truth of all this.

“You’re in luck then blondie,” Wendy said confidently. “They’ll be the easiest to track down.”

“Oh yeah, why’s that?” She raised an eyebrow at Wendy’s oddly upbeat tone. It was like the redhead knew something she didn’t, and she never liked to be out of the loop.

Nonchalantly, Wendy glanced at her. “You could say it’s been staring me in the face this whole time. Pacifica, you need to keep an open eye.”

“Agh, what does that mean?!” Nearly tearing out her hair in frustration, Pacifica hit a breaking point out of nowhere, being reminded too much of all the Oracle’s evasiveness at their first meeting. “Talk normally for once, I’m so, so tired of all the cryptic language games.”

“No no, I’m being serious, really.” Wendy was almost trying not to laugh. “Do you have a compact, something with a mirror?”

“You know I do,” she mumbled, and fished in her pocket for the small pocket compact she always carried with her.

She offered it to Wendy, but the armoured redhead shook her head. “Uh uh. Take a look yourself.” Pacifica flipped open the mirror and stared at her own face in the reflection, and nearly dropped the compact in shock.

Framed within the pupils of her eyes, Mason and Mabel shared the same look of utter bewilderment, mouths wide open and eyes boggling. They were inside of her, moving about freely. Trapped behind her sapphire eyes. She blinked several times, feeling unclean.

“You’re the Pine Tree, all three of you,” Wendy tried to explain, serious again. “Past, present, and future are all contained within you.”

Pacifica snapped the compact shut and wiped her eyes one last time. “I don’t like your phrasing. We’ll get them out of there, somehow.”

“I told you before, you’re at the centre of all this Pacifica. I don’t know how, but there’s more than… meets the eye.” This time she actually laughed, and Pacifica shot her a death glare.

“That is not funny, at all.” She wasn’t about to get angry over it though. If what she said was true, then maybe now wasn’t the time for needlessly antagonising the only other person in existence who could help her. Begrudgingly, she offered a theory. “Do you think it has something to do with why we’re not dead yet? Like I said before to the Oracle though, I'm not important. I only fell in with the twins by accident. On my own I’m nobody.”

“There’s more though, trust me. I don’t have the full picture yet. When I arrived beyond the boundary, I saw all the others trapped together. All of them, except you.”

“Regardless,” Pacifica said, shaking off the line of questioning, “it’s about time you showed me where all the others are. Shall we?” She offered a hand, and Wendy eyed it cautiously, before shaking it, like she’d first done at the airport in Geneva.

“Right away then, partner. I should warn you though: If you thought the copy of Gravity Falls was weird, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

* * *

The image of Wendy’s confident smile vanished. Pacifica had blinked again. The image was already slow enough, as the impulses were processed at a reduced rate than in real time. Mabel had to try extra hard to lip read.

“I don’t know, something about ‘paint been nothing yet’? I dunno, she needs to speak clearer. And figuring out her slang is even harder!”

Mason, sat on the floor with legs crossed, had his mind on other things. “You can get Paz to take her to enunciation lessons or something after, for now we just need to know what’s going on.” They were seemingly looking out of Pacifica’s eyes directly – with her brain accessible from the small cavern they were lodged inside. 

At first they’d tried calling out, to try and get their host to notice. But Pacifica couldn’t hear them, miniature as they were. They were along for the ride wherever she went.

In slow-motion, the eyelids parted again. Several successive frames showed Pacifica turn and open the door of the Mystery Shack, and without she stepped inside. The moment the white void became all encompassing, leaving any last trace of the forest or wooden building behind, Mabel detected an immediate pause in the image. It was minor, the barest tell that what she was seeing was now a static image.

She was sure though. “The view’s frozen. Dipper, we can’t see what’s going on out there anymore.”

This roused her brother from his deep thought, and he stood beside her and witnessed the blank sight outside. There were no options now but to sit and wait. He had his journal, Mabel had her skills, and they both had experience. Yet what good was any of that if they were trapped in a single moment.

“Do you think she’s stuck too, out there?”

Mason had already considered that and gave a small shake of his head. “I think it’s just us. That void or whatever must have overpowered the optic nerve. Or something like that.” He strolled over to Pacifica’s brain, running a hand softly along the fleshy surface. “This place is all probably some kind of mental construct anyway. A place to represent our current state. Besides, the electric pulses are still going. I hope Paz and Wendy make it, out there.”

Mabel blew out air. That didn’t seem like much of a plan. “So we sit tight? That’s all? The world’s ending and we can’t do a thing.”

“Better than the alternative.” He flashed her a cautious grin, trying to show that while he didn’t have all the answers he felt like they’d turned a corner. The white light of the blank void at least allowed them to see more than the occasional electrical surges had done. “Somehow Paz and Wendy can fix things. We can beat the a-mortals, I know it.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

The twins both swivelled around as the voice echoed around Pacifica’s cranium. Her brain was pulsing with more electricity than before, converging in a single point. Lightning shot up, then flared out to form the outline of a man. Muscles, bones, then full skin formed around the core of harsh energy.

A vast ear-piercing scream rang out and the figure writhed. When the process finally ended, Gabriel Crane, still dressed in his immaculate suit, stood atop the brain, hunched over. Rearing up, he let out a pained laugh which reverberated around the cavern. A wide grin stretched across his face unnaturally, and he bared his pearly whites. “Hello children.”

Mabel’s immediate reaction was to fire a blast right at the a-mortal’s chest. It succeeded in wiping the smug grin away, but the bolt of energy passed straight through him. Lowering her gauntlet arm, Mabel steeled herself. “Oh poop. I figured that wouldn’t work.”

“You catch on quick. May Pines, am I correct? At last we properly meet, face to face. The troublemaker. I’ve been waiting for this.”

Mabel narrowed her eyes and her lips resolved into a straight line. “I am not going to sink to your level.”

“A shame about your shot,” Crane continued, seeming not to care what she’d said. “In this realm, at the very edge of existence, things are… malleable.”

“Cut to the point, Crane.” Mason wasn’t going to let the man intimidate him. He’d come too far and gone through too much for anything he said to affect him. “You lost. Reality is still standing, much as you’d like the opposite.”

“Yeah, buzz off back to non-existence,” Mabel called. “I thought you wanted to end it all.”

“Ah, but that’s just it. End it _all_, not some half-measure. I don’t want to commit suicide for myself, I want to end all suffering, all inequality.”

The way he was comparing himself to some champion of justice made Mabel’s nose wrinkle. He could act like he believed in the same causes she did, it didn’t erase how twisted his worldview really was. “You have no leg to stand on,” she said through gritted teeth. “You sold weapons for a living. You want to kill _trillions_! We don’t have to listen to this garbage, come on Dipper.”

“Wait, I have some questions.” Mason’s penetrating eyes were fixed on the a-mortal.

Of course, Mabel supposed. Her brother always did love to fill in all the gaps, to make sure he could fill his journals with as much as possible. Addressing Crane on his podium of grey matter, Mabel let her brother sate his obvious curiosity. It wasn’t like they could get away from Crane in this cramped place.

“Riddle me this, _old_ friend: How are you here? We only exist cause we were in the eye of the storm. Zodiac premier privileges. But you, you’re nobody.” He took immeasurable satisfaction in watching Crane frown as he continued his mocking speech. “Out of the loop, a stray interloper. By all accounts you can’t be here. Anyway, I thought you just had the basic long-life package – no extra powers on top?”

“I don’t, not as you might comprehend them.” The British man, with hands clasped behind his back, stepped down off the brain. He circled around the twins, head held high despite their confidence. “I have clung onto life walking the earth for millennia. Did you expect me to go down quite so easily? When one strives to preserve one’s life, precautions must be taken for more than just the physical plane. My identity, like that of your mercenary redhead friend, is harder to dissolve.”

“So what?” Mason dismissively replied. “You’re just as trapped as we are. Flickers of memory, or whatever.”

Crane bent over to stare him in the eye. The tiniest flicker of a smile animated the man’s face. “Am I, Mr Pines? Is that what you think?” A darker tone crept into his voice, and Mason put up his guard. If the a-mortal had some kind of plan, then more was in flux than they’d bargained for.

Crane straightened up and paced around, ignoring the twins. “I was born in Londinium in the year AD 72 as Gabrelus Cranius. In my lifetime I witnessed the fall of Rome, the rise of the European empires in the Middle Ages, the conquest of the new world. All that experience, and you two think you can stop me, stop my legacy? You’re barely out of the womb by my standards.”

“Hey, Mabel here,” she interrupted. “Small question: If you clung to life for so long, then why are you all gung-ho about ending it? Never made sense to me. If you’re all such selfish people that you made yourselves live forever, why even care about everyone else?”

“Because they can’t tolerate anyone else getting the spoils they leave behind when they’re gone,” Mason explained, trying to put into words half-remembered explanations he’d received from Wendy and Pacifica in the past. “If everyone goes there’ll be no-one left to keep score.”

“Oh, you’ve seen through our little plan.” Crane sounded surprised. “I suppose you were the one who made all those Calculations that got us here.”

“Little plan? _Little plan_?!” Mabel was fuming. “Your ‘little plan’ caused a genocide by accident! You wanna murder every living soul, simply to make a point?!” Mason had to hold his sister back as she charged at the man. “You’re a monster, a vile, odious-“

“Mabel! It’s not helping! You can’t touch him anyway.” He held her by the shoulders and waited for her breathing to slow down again. It wasn’t like he wanted to stop her – he had just as much disdain for Crane’s callousness. But he had to stay pragmatic. Keep a cool head in this unusual situation, or things might go from bad to worse.

“The portal, yes. Such ambition.” Crane was still staring off at nothing, wrapped up in himself. “The perfect lure for you, and a useful transport for our interstellar cousins. It was only right they stand beside us as witnesses to the final end. With your Zodiac we had the means at last to ensure a pure erasure. All life treated the same.”

“Long have I waited to see this cleansing brought about,” he continued, pacing around and ignoring the harsh looks from the twins. “In the past we sought other, messier options. The 50’s were promising, for a time the nuclear option was thought as viable. Then the countries of our tiny earth were infected with that most distasteful disease: peace, and that was taken off the table. At the start of this century there was a flicker of hope. Medical advances progressed rapidly, and we pivoted our goals. We had the idea of _spreading_ our gift. Instead of being outlived, we thought we might increase the lifespans of those around us. There would be no victor to reign after our passing if we all lived and died as one. We made investments in the right companies, attempted to push for development in areas that could further that goal. But even that was still not enough.”

“You couldn’t do it, you couldn’t find a way to give everyone your little… _gift_,” Mason spat.

“Human bodies are not all made the same. It was impossible for us to unlock eternal life in the full population. But still, the research was not totally wasted. Engineering a virus was always possible. Mass pandemic has been a painful but effective killer of men since time immemorial. It would be easy, a little bioengineered kill switch. Some of the prototypes ended up not working as planned. Too much chaos too quickly. We needed a more instantaneous option.”

“So then you found Grunkle Ford’s research on the portal,” Mabel said. “The Zodiac too. That was meant to be a thing to help people! To stop Bill Cipher and save the world!” She felt herself getting angry again, at the idea of the a-mortals twisting her Great Uncle’s life’s work into something purely evil.

“Miss Pines, I thought you at least might see eye to eye,” Crane said with a chuckle pointed towards the still gaping windows out onto the white emptiness. “You saw the world’s flaws and tried to fix them. Surely all that poverty and climate change and corruption would seem a petty thing when all would be wiped away.”

Clenching her fists and doing all she could to restrain herself, Mabel said, “Life is precious, no matter how fleeting. You don’t understand people at all. You’re not even really human, not anymore. Living for too long has turned you into something else, something that despises everything I fight for.”

Mason was still putting the pieces together. “So you copied our portal, from the scraps we left behind, I get that. Then you, what, joined up with all your cousins on the other worlds? Like that Lottoqueen, a-mortals beyond Earth.”

“It was easy enough to recruit them. We found swiftly that the majority aligned with our goals. Some had even begun the burning, travelling between realms offering salvation.”

Their tentacles reached everywhere, Mason knew, even across the stars. From Lottocron X and beyond, their own homeworld was nothing special. Wherever life spread, so did a-mortals like a cancer, malignant and waiting to take down all the rest when they got bored or too scared of losing what they had. The breeding grounds of the Grown had gone that way, burnt down leaving the last generations scattered. He shuddered to think what might have happened to Earth had Crane and his associates not stumbled onto loftier goals. 

Crane finally ended his speech. “Now we can put a stop to those inefficient measures. Our people united, our message clear. As the First willed it, we shall be the Last.”

Sharing a feeling of absolute horror at his words, the twins refused to be cowed. Side by side, they didn’t reply, letting Crane’s words linger as a hollow echo. Displeased, Crane climbed back onto Pacifica’s brain.

“Very well, it seems I’ve dallied here long enough. It’s time to rewrite this universe under our guidance. Time for what I came for.” He opened his arms wide and once again the electricity began to flare up around him. Light shot out to the side, forming duplicate figures like himself.

The twins saw people they recognised, rendered as half-formed ghosts. On either side Crane was now flanked by the Tool Maker and Hetepheres. A second wave shot out, and now the Lottoqueen appeared as well.

Crane called out, like he was preaching to the heavens. “I shall start with my brothers and sisters inside the dreamer’s memory and branch out from there! Together, the conjured mass will imprint our pattern on this miniscule remnant and ensure that none will come after this!”

Pacifica’s brain began to flex and rumble uncomfortably. As Wendy had said, she was the heart of this whole reality. All that was left centred around her for some unknown reason. If Crane perverted the conceptual reflection of her mind, then all that might come crashing down.

Mason knew he had to do something fast to stem the tide. More than everyone else, he had to do this for Pacifica. They were the trio, more than friends, more than family. He wracked his mind for some way to stop the a-mortals manifesting.

It was Mabel who came up with a solution. “That’s it, memory! Pacifica’s not the only one with memories of those jerks!” Closing her eyes and concentrating, Mabel diverted some of the mental energy, so it flowed around herself. Beside her, the image of the Japanese a-mortal she’d defeated appeared. “Dipper, come on! We have to show them they’re not all-powerful. They _can_ be beaten!”

He linked hands with his sister, joining her in plunging into their memories. To his left appeared Anton Selchen, another fallen a-mortal. To his right, the Abbot from Tibet, someone who was completely neutral in this fight of ancient beings. Even an image Jheselbraum manifested. Though her true fate out in the embers of their dying universe was uncertain, the twins knew she was on their side.

Perhaps presenting this show of discord, a counter to the massed ranks of Crane’s summoned allies, they could keep him at bay. It took all their effort to stay focused, with electricity flying about all around them in a maelstrom.

Mason locked eyes with Crane, daring him to challenge them. “We Pines are sturdy.”

“We take care of our own,” Mabel finished.

They were fighting for everyone whose lives the a-mortals had tried to steal. For Merrise. For Zera and Eli. For all the other Zodiac members, whatever peril they might be facing. They were still trapped inside Pacifica, with no conception of what was going on in the dying world outside. But now they were fighting to keep her safe.

* * *

Across the forests of Gravity Falls, a group were stomping their way up one of the slopes that gradually steepened to meet the sheer cliffs that surrounded the valley. Guided forward by a sense of discovery, they were here to uncover secrets and go on incredible adventures. As they crested the hill, the mouth of a cave awaited them eagerly, promising the unknown.

They were the Mystery Trio.

Quattro Alcor, Andromeda Northwest, and Bel Pines. And they were here on a classic Mystery Hunt.

Quattro retrieved his journal, briefly admiring the cover of golden stars before flipping through it. The book had been handed down from a relative, a record of all the strange creatures he’d catalogued in his explorations. Entrusted to Quattro, he made it his duty to carry on the traditions of his family.

Adjusting his red and gold cap, he spoke aloud the words on the page. “Ahem, listen closely ladies. The creature we’re searching for is called a Shimmer. It’s supposedly about 8ft tall, and completely invisible.”

“That sounds spooky,” Andromeda said with a shiver. She tightly wrapped her yellow sweater, the one with the llama stitched on the chest, around herself. The idea of stumbling upon a fearsome beastie in a dark cave was still something she wasn’t used to.

“Shimmer? Pfft, more like beginner, it’s no problem.” Hearing Bel’s assured manner raised Andromeda’s spirits a little. She could always rely on the tougher girl’s abilities to get her out of any real danger. She believed in her family over everything, they’d never steered her wrong so far. “Right,” Bel continued, “where do we find our big boy?”

As she tentatively flexed her wrist, testing out her grapple line, Quattro eyes darted rapidly back and forth from the page to the surrounding trees. “I think this is some kind of den where the creature lives. If we hide in wait, it might pass this way soon.”

“We should lay bait, like little snacks for it nibble on!” Andromeda rummaged in her sweater’s deep pockets, hunting for something to coax out the beast. She held out her prize in triumph. “I’ve got some old candy I was saving for later.” Quattro wrinkled his nose – the sweet-smelling offering was covered in strands of wool from her sweater. He didn’t want to ask how long she’d been hoarding those.

“Bait schmait. What we need is action.” Bel batted Andromeda’s hand away and sized up the cave entrance. She reached into her brown jacket and tossed out a handful of small ball bearings across the cave mouth, then rolled to side. A second later, the balls burst into life. Firecrackers. “If that _thing_ is nearby, this’ll draw it back to base.”

The way she’d lingered over calling it a ‘thing’, like it was a dirty word, gave Quattro some pause. Bel wasn’t doing this for the same reasons as Andromeda and him. There was a deeper hatred in her voice. Like she resented all the weirdness around them.

There was no time for him to argue though, as heavy footfalls plodded towards them through the trees. Bel pulled them to one side, behind a bush, and laid in wait for the creature to get near. Quattro saw it first as a strange distortion, like looking through curved glass, that moved across the foliage in time with the reverberations. 

It was the Shimmer, he was sure of it. He couldn’t hide his growing grin. Here he was, finally fulfilling the legacy of his elders, living up to the Pines name. He couldn’t wait to study the animal, to learn what made it tick. Andromeda had a similar look, smiling warmly and reaching out with one hand as if she could touch the creature despite the distance separating them. She always did have a strange way with nature.

Bel suddenly stood to her full height, exposed before the mouth of the cave. Before Quattro could say anything, she raised her left arm, pointed it at the patch of quivering air and splayed her hand out wide. Quattro’s stomach lurched sickeningly as time slowed to a crawl. He knew exactly what she’d just done.

A blast exploded from her wrist and the Shimmer toppled over, shaking the earth as it fell, dead.

“Gotcha,” Bel muttered to herself, satisfied with a clean kill.

Beside her, Quattro burst out of the bush. “What the hell was that?!” Quattro grabbed frantically for his journal and thrust it in his teammate’s face. “This says it was a herbivore! We just needed to get it contained, not murder the poor thing!” Quattro’s fingers pressed against the frayed pages, as if he could enforce the words on the page and make the Shimmer come back to life.

Bel didn’t seem to care, already scowling and pushing the book away. “So what? Are we Mystery Hunters or are we cowards?”

“It’s not like that Bel, we catalogue and contain. We don’t kill indiscriminately!”

“Guys, stop!” Andromeda forced her way between them. “We’re all friends, remember.” She sounded on the verge of tears, likely horrified by the innocent Shimmer’s death. Her empathic powers might have even allowed her to feel the creature’s dying emotions, that brief flare of terror before languishing in the dirt. Yet still she tried to hold them back, to stem the argument. “We’re family – sort of – we don’t fight.”

“Out of my way.” Bel pushed back of course but came up short against the hidden strength of her teammate, heels dug firmly in place. “You don’t get it, airhead. If we never talk, we never solve anything. Burying your head in the sand wont’ fix this!”

“Neither will all these insults and shouting!”

“Ann, please.” Quattro spoke to her softly and led her away. “I can handle this, don’t worry yourself.”

“Oh yeah, little man?” Bel roughly grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and held him up in the air. “I’m the only real leader around here. You two are just sheep, all you do is copy.” Quattro squirmed in her grip but couldn’t break free. Even though he too had reserves of power in his muscles, Bel was no slouch in that department. “I’m the Alpha Twin. You always sacrifice everything for _ME_! We do what I say, when I say it.”

Something inside Quattro finally spoke up, giving him a sudden jolt of power to break free. Inside his mind the wheels started turning, making connections to his past and awakening memories that had been dormant until now.

Being created from the photocopier – Tracey – the circus – breaking free of all the compulsions and demands wired into his paper brain. He remembered it all. He looked up at his two companions. They could see the change in him and now stared blankly down, unsure of what was going on.

Quattro looked to them both, seeing what they truly were, faced with aspects of Mabel turned up to eleven. Andromeda had all of her artistic spirit, the desire to care for all living things. But her upbringing, sheltered from ever knowing the full horrors of her past, left her more timid than the original. Bel swung completely the other way, becoming a pure force of chaos itself, albeit with an overriding sense of self-preservation.

It wasn’t quite that simple of course. Andromeda’s desire to intervene, to play peacemaker, was likely a holdover from her other creator. As Pacifica had once done between the twins, Ann was now trying to desperately resolve the conflict.

Quattro wasn't like this. For all his outward similarities to Mason, he'd overcome the purpose of his creation. He was an independent being now, one who charted his own destiny.

“Finally, an anchor.” A flash of golden light from the cave blinded them all briefly. When the glow faded, Quattro saw two familiar faces.

“Pacifica! Wendy!”

“Told you he’d be the first to see through the illusion,” Pacifica said, smirking at her companion as they exited the cave. “You owe me five bucks, Red.”

“Maybe once there’s a universe where you can actually spend that money,” the armoured redhead shot back.

Quattro interrupted their banter. “Guys, what’s going on? My memories were all jumbled up, I only just figured out who I was.” He threw his journal down so it thudded next to the Shimmer’s invisible corpse. Taking off his cap and admiring the gold symbol on the brow, he realised this was his true legacy. Finding his own way through life instead following the book to the letter.

“We’ll explain everything soon,” Pacifica said, before turning to the two others gathered here. “First we have to deal with Llama and Icebag.”

“I don’t think so.” Bel extended a jagged blade from her wrist and pointed it at the interlopers. “I’m the one in charge here, I call the shots.”

“Yeah, no.” Wendy moved into the light and started marching forwards. Instantly Bel panicked and waved her knife about like a feral animal.

“Stay back!” She tripped and fell into the dirt, scrabbling backwards to get away from the figure that so terrified her.

Wendy put on a mean face and towered above the cowering girl. “You’re afraid of me. Of how you can’t live up to me, or cause in your messed-up universe I’m a boogeyman or something. Well today’s your lucky day.” Then Wendy broke into a smug grin. “How you doing, Anti-Mabel?”

It was like a light turned on in Bel’s mind. She looked at herself in horror and shot up out of the mud. A reddening blush crept across her face. She was ashamed that she’d reacted in such a pitiful way. With her full memories returned, she gave a deep sigh. “Alright. I’m still alive, which means you idiots must be doing something right. Screw it, tell me what we have to do.”

“That was easier than I thought it was going to be,” Pacifica chuckled. Bel prized her own safety over any enmity between them. An opportunist like her would probably bolt the moment she could, but for now she’d follow along. The dark copy of Mabel still kept her distance from Wendy too. Whatever had caused that strange fear was useful in a pinch at least.

Andromeda was the last one. She was shivering, lost and unsure what was happening. Pacifica knew they couldn’t scare her into remembering. She’d need a lighter touch. “Ann? Do you recognise me? It’s me, Pacifica. We’re family? Anything?”

“I- I don’t know! There’s something about you… your essence… but I’m so confused.”

“Maybe we should tell her about her life, or all the dimension hopping stuff and the mission,” Quattro offered. “It’s not the first time she lost all her memories and we had to fill her in.”

“That could take all day and I don’t know how much time we have.” Pacifica looked down at the silver llama pendant around Ann’s neck, so similar to her own pine tree. Maybe she had to find something the two of them shared beyond the surface. Not just appearance, but some connection.

Maybe one of Ann’s quirks was the answer. Ciffy, the nickname only Andromeda used. Pacifica’s family did have a habit of using alternate names. May and Mason. Dipper and Mabel. I all depended on who was addressing them or how serious they wanted to present themselves. Even with herself: was she Pacifica, Paz, Princess, Northwest, Ciffy?

“Do you really not remember me? Your old pal Ciffy?” She winced at the words. She’d tried to sound more like Mabel – the real one and not the sullen parallel version standing next to her.

Context was everything, and names were another form of symbols. By invoking this name she hoped she could reach her doppelganger, who was more attuned to the spiritual than any of them. If the weird alchemy of the Zodiac had got them into this mess, then maybe it could get them out again.

And despite Pacifica’s stilted words, Andromeda’s eyes did light up. Pacifica was unprepared for the constricting hug as her copy leapt at her, but reciprocated, relaxing into the soft wool. “Pacifica! I’ve missed you! I felt so bad at first, I could feel all the pain…”

She broke from the hug, staring off into space. Pacifica could only wonder how it had felt to feel the death of the entire universe, amplified through her unusual senses. Then the clone, as always, grinned cheerily again, the dark matter forgotten. “We’re back together now though, that’s the important thing.” The clone flashed a smile at every one of them, though it wavered a bit when her eyes fell upon Bel.

“That’s all sorted. Onto the next bunch.” Pacifica clapped her hands together, forming a glowing wall of symbols a short way inside the cave. A Zodiac wheel painted on the wall. The painting disappeared, leaving a shimmering gateway that opened back up onto a white nothingness. “Guess I have some small control over what’s left of reality.”

“Wait, before we go.” Quattro looked around at the trees and the cave one last time. “Why were we like this? The three of us, investigating a creature in the woods.”

Wendy answered with a sly grin. “Everything’s falling apart. I think with you three the universe is trying to hold itself together in a familiar pattern as best it can. I guess even right at the end it’s still natural to have a Mystery Trio in some form.”

“Which probably means,” Pacifica contemplated out loud, “if these three were the most stable, they were easiest to return to normal. The others are going to be harder to get to.”

Wendy beckoned her and the ‘Mystery Trio’ into the gateway, then dived headfirst after them. Three down, six to go.

* * *

A fountain of golden light pooled in the middle of the dark street. Rising out of the pavement, Pacifica shook off the last of the shimmering particles. Looming in front of her was a large house, identical to those surrounding it in the suburb.

She was thankful that travelling around this tiny fraying corner of the multiverse hadn’t triggered more vomiting like their most recent hopper trips. She still hadn’t figured out why they’d started affecting her and not the others.

She and Wendy had decided to split up to find the last two Zodiac members. So now Pacifica was stood in front of a house she recognised all too well. It has always been too large for comfort really, but as she stared up at her own home in Trenton, New Jersey, it seemed to distort and grown, an exaggerated caricature of the real thing.

Pacifica wrapped her arms around her shoulders. It had begun to lightly rain. There were no stars in the sky above. The only light came from a streetlight, illuminating the house in a sickly orange, and leaving everything else shrouded.

She wondered who she’d find inside this time, what strange illusions would be keeping the occupant a prisoner. There was some logic to the places in this dying realm. Her memories were the template. Half-remembered and twisted to fit the new reality, but taken from her own mind nonetheless. It really did seem like she was the crux of this whole thing.

Finding the others, strewn out like castaways, had taken them all across her past. They’d found Candy in the old Northwest Manor. She’d once again been working on building a clone of McGucket, a fruitless task that never came any closer to being completed. Toiling away the hours in the dark manor that had once belonged to her mentor. Snapping her out of that had required telling her the brutal truth that McGucket was gone. She took the news outwardly well enough; overt displays of emotion had never been in Candy Chiu’s nature, and his passing was already a simple reality.

Zera and Eli were the next to be found, linked together. Mabel’s two ‘complicated’ friends, the pair had ended up in an echo of Quattro’s circus, with Zera playing the role of a merperson in a tank and Eli her ringmaster. Neither of them really fit the new roles, and the illusion had been almost as confusing to them as the moment Mabel had quickly kissed them both before they’d formed the Zodiac. Despite Eli’s training with the Society of the Open Eye, he was just as dazed as his alien colleague.

They’d found Bokamoso at one Pacifica’s parents’ fancy parties. This was a place where everyone acted according to the same restrictive rules. An outcast by nature, Bo was the only one who didn’t conform. Ashamed and derided for his extra eye, he was relieved when salvation arrived to whisk away back to reality.

All through her travels with Wendy they never met anyone other than those enshrined as part of the Zodiac. Even at the party there were only shadows of the guests, no real people that could speak or react. They truly were the only beings to have survived the cataclysm, though none knew how long their state of grace would last before they too joined the ranks of the dead.

Alone in the rain, Pacifica knew there were only two choices left for who she’d have to rescue. Either it would be the unknowable Jheselbraum, or…

A piercing scream from within left her with no doubts. Every protective instinct inside her kicked into high gear. Merrise was in there, in danger.

Bursting through the front door, she was plunged into darkness. Not even the glow from the streetlight could guide her forwards anymore. Merrise’s cries were still audible though. Pacifica pushed on in search of that scared voice.

She tried calling out into the darkness but received no reply. The size of the house deadened her sound. Mason’s desire to get away from his sister, their joint dream to start a family that had been so cruelly crushed, all of it was tied up in this structure. They’d never been happy here, from the moment they’d moved in.

Stumbling on through the lightly decorated hallways and rooms, the sounds of the alien girl’s wailing intensified. She was sobbing quietly to herself upstairs. Pacifica tried in vain to find the staircase. Everything felt too far apart, and she lost her way.

The house became a winding labyrinth, denying her passage to save the girl they’d taken away from her home. It was their fault she was trapped here, their fault that everything she’d ever known had been upended.

Merrise’s cries became intermingled with another side, similarly high-pitched. Pacifica clamped her hands over her ears. Two parts of her life were merging together. The tinkling of the bell had dominated her childhood and now it was back to haunt her, even after years of being free.

But there was another child right now who was far more scared and alone. Pacifica let the sound of the bell wash over her, following it back to the source. She pushed onwards, finding the stairs and climbing for what felt like hours.

The noise was loudest by the first door she came to on the upper landing. Ringing and crying mixed together in a way that threatened to overwhelm her. She clutched her pendant and placed her hand on the door. With a single heft she threw it open.

Abruptly, the sound of the bell ceased. Of course it would be this room, Pacifica noted. Even through the gloom she could see the bright blue sky painted on the walls. Tracing the quiet sound of sobbing, she finally found Merrise beneath the cot.

The alien girl was flattened against the floor, eyes pressed shut. Her slender frame was shaking, and her hands were wrapped around her body.

Pacifica knelt down and tried to speak softly. “Hey, are you alright?”

Merrise flinched, giving a fearful whine. One of her eyes slowly opened, before she gasped. “Pacifica?” She’d already got her memories back. Smart kid. But she was still scared and alone.

“What are you hiding from, Merrise?”

“I saw things… shadows… I was so afraid, I got lost, I ran!”

“Hey now, it’s ok. You’re safe now.”

“But they’re still out there.”

Pacifica glanced around. She didn’t see anything. Just the darkness pressing in all around. She turned back to the terrified child and wordlessly stretched out her hand. She had to be a reassuring figure for her. Merrise reached out and held on. Her hand was tiny in Pacifica’s own, but the warmth from her touch gave the girl enough courage to let herself be pulled out.

She was still shaking, so Pacifica lifted her up. Wrapped tight, she felt Merrise start to relax. She was safe. Pacifica could even feel her heartbeat slow.

Not for the first time she wondered what exactly the girl meant to her. The urge to see Merrise content and happy, able to have the kind of carefree life the twins had always taken for granted, was overwhelming. Her own mother and father had been the worst kind of parents, restrictive, uncaring. Pacifica was going to make sure that the trembling girl in her arms would get the kind of upbringing she could have only dreamed of.

Carrying her to the door, Pacifica found the light switch. Just like that, bathed in illumination from above, the room suddenly didn’t feel scary anymore. It was just a mundane, disused room. She’d banished the fear, not just for Merrise, but for herself as well. No longer would the spectre this room presented have any hold over her.

Perhaps if they ever made it out of this impossible situation and found a way back to Earth, then they could give this place another go. Finally turn it from an empty shell into a true home worth living in.

Merrise whispered something but Pacifica didn’t catch it. “What was that?”

“Oh,” Merrise looked up at her, “I said thanks. Thanks for coming back for me. No-one’s ever come back for me before you did.”

“I know the feeling, kid,” Pacifica replied, remembering how long it had taken to meet someone in her life who genuinely cared for her in that way. She even felt like she could sense Mason’s desire to see them both happy, his emotions leaking through as he remained trapped behind her vision. “Come on. We’ve got work to do. We’re gonna get everyone back.”

* * *

In a flash, Pacifica and Merrise arrived in a dimly lit space. Surrounded by walls of bare earth and a row of electrical consoles, the younger girl couldn’t make out much. “Where are we? Underground?” Inquisitive, she squinted through a large glass visor that divide the room. Though it was too murky to see inside, she could hear a murmur of voices beyond.

“This,” Pacifica said, “is where our journey began. You could say that the source of all our problems is through here.” She passed into the larger chamber. Those that they’d rescued, the gathered members of the Eponymous, were clustered together in the room’s centre. Up against the far wall was a tall construction of silver.

Merrise recognised the design. An inverted triangle with a single wide circle at the core. She’d seen it on the trio’s hoppers when they were ready to move. She’d seen it in a horrifically oversized form on the planet below the A-mortals’ space station. Now she was seeing the original portal, back in the basement beneath the Mystery Shack.

Pacifica sighed. “Of course it’s here. Everything important in our lives stems from here in a way. The journals, travelling between dimensions, the Society, the A-mortals.” She trailed off, staring at the empty, unlit portal aperture, and Merrise wondered what she was thinking. Then she shook it off. “Time to make things right.”

They headed over to the group, nestled in the long shadow the portal had cast over their lives. Pacifica was glad to see that there was some semblance of comradery between them all. Candy and Eli were discussing something intently, likely some plan for what to do once they returned to reality. The paper clones were sat on the floor, journals open in front of them. Bel of course was sulking alone the corner, eyeing everyone up with a disdainful glare, but that was to be expected.

The mood definitely felt lighter than the last time they’d all been together in this place, with all the panicked bickering before their rushed entry into the portal for the first time.

“So these are your friends from home?” Merrise asked, standing behind Pacifica warily. She hadn’t had time for a proper introduction the last time they’d been gathered. As Merrise’s eyes drifted across the group, she spotted Zera, who was talking with Bokamoso. Noting her aquatic features, she tugged on Pacifica’s leg. “I had no idea you had multiple species on Dirt.”

“It’s called Earth, not-“

“I know.” Merrise flashed her a cheeky grin. Even in a crisis she was still joking around. Just like Mabel always did, keeping positive in the face of unassailable odds. Pacifica couldn’t help but soften and smile along with the girl.

Still, she felt the need to introduce the two aliens in their party to each other. “This is Zera. She’s not from home, she’s from S’aren. Zera, this is Merrise.”

The alien conwoman flashed a warm smile at the girl, breaking any tension between them. “Oh, a Tengosan. I spent a lovely week there once before the war.”

“There was a _before_ the war?” Merrise asked sincerely.

While Zera shook Merrise’s tiny, six-fingered hand, Bokamoso gestured to Pacifica. Taking her to one side, he quietly spoke. “So, what are our odds here? I know Corduroy’s not back yet, but how likely is it we actually see tomorrow?”

“Honestly, Bo,” Pacifica said with a sigh, “I have no idea. It’s not like when I was younger. I can’t just throw money at the problem until it’s fixed. I still don’t even know why we have this chance.”

“Maybe we’re about to have some light shed on the situation.” Bo pointed up at the portal frame, drawing everyone’s gaze. A small pinprick of light grew to fill the aperture. It wasn’t icy blue as usual, but a brilliant array of colours, spinning around like a rainbow.

Jumping out from the maelstrom, Wendy touched down in the basement, hand-in-hand with a tall hooded figure. As the portal’s glow vanished as fast as it had appeared, Jheselbraum stood to her full height.

But something was wrong. Pacifica peered under the hood. Instead of the seven bright eyes, her face was scrunched up tightly. The oracle fell forwards, unsteady on her feet, and Wendy tried to support her.

Pacifica rushed to her side, propping the alien’s large frame up between them. Together they helped sit her against the wall. “Easy now,” Wendy said, then turned to Pacifica. “You wouldn’t believe where I found her.”

“Try me. It’s been the kind of day where nothing’s that surprising.”

“It was our Swiss bunker. I mean, the Society’s secret lair, where you and the twins…” Wendy locked eyes with Eli, then both of them gave Pacifica apologetic looks.

She wasn’t interested in bringing that up right now. “What’s wrong with her though?” She waved a hand in the Oracle’s face, but her eyes stayed resolutely shut. Her lips were moving almost imperceptibly. Pacifica craned in but couldn’t make out what she was saying.

It was hard to imagine what could have her so shaken. Perhaps for someone so used to glimpsing ahead, to see unparalleled, being lost in the dark underground was the worst kind of torment.

“Ann, can I borrow you for a second?” Pacifica’s clone was startled by the request. “I just need you to try and translate for us. Like you did with the First. Please?”

Her clone’s initial hesitance faded away, and she nodded. “If you think it can help her.” Andromeda knelt down and softly placed her hand on the oracle’s shoulder.

Immediately she collapsed, falling the floor. Her eyelids clamped down at the same time. “Ann! Are you ok?!” Quattro was at her side, trying to shake her out of it. His ‘sister’ was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly began to speak, mid-sentence, the words pouring out of her in a torrent.

“-no future to this place, this necrotic vestige, doomed to fade away like the rest of causality. No universe spared, no reality untouched. Any form of existence we here could conceive of is at threat. I am cut off from my true purpose. The Axolotl is dead. This is a mere halt, a minor respite before we all perish.”

“Yeesh, and here I thought she was supposed to be the optimistic one,” Bokamoso said, grimacing. Pacifica shot him a disapproving look, but he just shrugged.

Andromeda continued, incomprehensibly mumbling to herself too quietly for any of them to hear. Quattro suddenly yelped and his hands shot away from her. Her paper body felt like it was on fire. Candy’s voice lifted over the others, her tone commanding. “It’s like what happened before, with Cipher. She can’t take it!”

Andromeda’s voice drowned Candy out, raspy and desperate to speak. “We are nothing but shadows of what was before! The last dying embers! The new life will never be free while the three-in-one are sieged. They crowd around the mother’s head, moths to the only flame left in creation, screaming out their rage and their desire to burn!”

“Get her away from Jheselbraum!” Pacifica shouted, rushing forwards and prying Andromeda’s hands off of the Oracle.

The moment Ann’s hands left Jheselbraum’s shoulder, the clone relaxed, and her eyes flickered open. Staring up with a dumb grin, she showed no signs whatsoever of the ordeal she’d just underwent. “Oh, hey Pacifica. How’d the mind-meld thingy go?”

A slow clapping echoed around the basement. “Well done, I mean, bravo.” Stepping forwards, Anti-Mabel surveyed the disappointed faces around the room. “What do you do for an encore?”

“This isn’t funny,” Eli snapped.

“I wasn’t talking to you, meathead.” Bel pushed him aside and beelined straight for Pacifica. Right up in her face, Mabel’s counterpart sneered at her. “You’re everyone’s golden girl right now, always the special one. Ever since you plopped out of the right womb with a silver spoon in your mouth you’ve been better than everyone else. Even when all of reality’s scorched and burnt away, we’re still worshipping at the altar of Pacifica Northwest.”

She mock bowed with her hands, but Pacifica shot out and grabbed her wrist. “My name is Pines, jerk.”

“Wow, my brother in your timeline must either have been either lucky or desperate to end up with you.”

“This isn’t the time to be bickering like this-“

“It’s _exactly_ the time! Don’t think I don’t know what you have planned. We all get together again and _bond_.” She interlinked her hands to make the point. “Link hands in an overwrought display of affection and brotherhood or some crap, then we wish upon a star for magic to save the day.”

She sashayed away towards the prone figure of the Oracle, slumped against the dirt walls and still whispering to herself. “I dunno Pacifica, the last time we all made a circle we kinda… you know, killed everyone. Forgive me if I’m hesitant to retry the exact same process. Our dear Oracle here’s guidance has been rather spotty in the past, and right now she’s even less reliable.”

“I trust her,” Pacifica said quietly.

“Fat lotta good your _trust_ bought us,” Bel shot back. The mood in the room was shifting. Already the fragile solidarity was fraying, and Pacifica could feel whatever union had kept things civil was starting to turn against her.

“Mabel… makes some good points.” Zera had spoken, and now she was quick to clarify. “I mean, you’re not the same Mabel I know, but still. I don’t know much about this symbology stuff, but it didn’t work last time.”

“That was a mistake!” Merrise piped up, eager to defend Pacifica. “It was cause of the First, not us!”

“No offence kid,” Eli said, “but what do you know? You’re not even a part of our original mission. You’re just here by accident.”

Merrise scowled up at him, but before she could respond Bokamoso pushed his way to the middle of the fray. “She’s just as important as you are, Corazón. We’re all equal symbolically, and I have always trusted in the secret arts of alchemy.” He tapped Eli’s shoulder with two fingers, forceful enough to send a message. “So back off.”

“Hey, whose side are you on anyway?”

“Bold words from the man who betrayed the woman he professes to love.”

“That’s it!” Eli and Bo started scrapping, sending light punches flying at one another. It took Wendy’s intervention to literally pull them apart.

All the while the raised voices intensified. Bel kept saying over and over again that she knew something like this would happen, while the group devolved into petty chaos. Two camps quickly formed. Those afraid of reforming the Zodiac, either through fear of a repeat or lack of understanding of what they were getting into, and those who sided with the original goal of forming the circle of ten and trying to undo what they’d wrought.

And all the while Pacifica watched helplessly, with the sickening realisation that she’d seen this all before. Not just back when they’d been building the portal, with the split between the brash Society and the more cautious participants. It reached all the way back to Stan Pines’ funeral. The day five years ago, when Mason and Mabel had gone their separate ways.

She was about to step in, to use her infamously stern voice to get them all to listen and calm down. But as she watched the supposed hope for all of reality fall into division and doubt, she chanced upon Andromeda. The girl had never taken arguments well, her heightened senses being overwhelmed with all the strong emotions. Then she saw Merrise too, cowed into silence by all the raised voices, and Jheselbraum, still searching for a way forward.

While the others argued they’d forgotten what their true mission was. To ignore these simple divisions and do what they could for everyone else. All the dead of countless worlds were depending on them.

A voice lifted above the others. “We need someone who knows what they’re doing. Someone who knows the risks and what we’re dealing with in full.” It was Zera who had spoken. Pacifica knew she meant well, but of all of them she probably knew the least about the portal or the a-mortals. Which is why what she said next made Pacifica’s innards churn. “If only we could speak to the twins. They’d know what to do.”

“Yeah, exactly.” Eli reaffirmed her, nodding sagely as if that was the answer to everything. “May was always my shining light in life. And Mason’s the smartest guy I know- well, apart from you, Candy,” he hastily added.

Candy acknowledged him with a small grin but carried on the line of thought. “Mason knew more about the mechanics of the portal than anyone. And I know May, she’s always practical. They would probably have a clear plan of action.”

Even Bel, the exact opposite of Mabel’s sunshine and rainbows approach, seemed to be in agreement. “I suppose I didn’t give my other self quite enough credit before; she seems to have some spunk. Might be worth a chance. Hey, Pacifica Two.” She pointed to Andromeda. “How about you try communing with your creator’s brain, we might be able to have a chat with a real Pines. And I don’t mean you and Little Dipper, no offence.” 

That didn’t stop Quattro frowning and standing between Ann and the others. “I don’t think we need them anyway. Me, Andromeda, even you Bel, we’re not just copies of the originals. We’re our own people, we can make our own decisions.”

“Now now,” Bokamoso said, “I think we should consider all the options. We should try to reach out to them at least. Maybe a spell, or something Miss Chiu could whip up, ey?”

Pacifica couldn’t believe what she was hearing. All around her the others were nodding. They really thought they should absolve themselves of the responsibility. Even little Merrise looked like she was ready to join them. ‘If only the twins were here to lead us’, that was the prevailing mood. Enough was enough.

“The twins aren’t here!” In her loudest tone of voice she quelled the mob. Every head in the basement turned towards her, captivated. She had their full attention for this one single moment. It was now or never.

“The twins are never gonna be here, so forget it! Mabel and Mason are fighting their own battle. That means we have got to pull together _now_. You want someone who knows their shit? Have a read of this!” She held her journal in front of her proudly. “I’m going to finish what _I_ started. I’m as much part of this ‘Pine Tree’,” which she emphasised by making quote marks with her hands, “as anyone. My place in the Zodiac is the same as theirs, so all of you shut up for once and listen to me.”

She looked at every face in the group, trying to get her point across as succinctly as she could to sway them. “My dreams are what started all of this. None of you would be here if it weren’t for me. Not even the Oracle. She’d be sitting around with her head in the clouds waiting for someone to come along and _do_ something about the threat! That’s what’s happening now while we wait.”

Here arms opened wide. “We’re the only ones who can make this choice. The Zodiac. The ten of us, brought together by destiny, or fate, or plain luck. It doesn’t matter. It’s down to us. I’m not waiting around as the world falls apart to rely on anyone else. The twins are fighting a battle inside my mind. I can feel the storm raging. My best friend and the man I love are the only people standing against utter ruin. We owe it to them to be the best of ourselves. To show the a-mortals that we won’t go quietly into the night, that life is worth living! So what do you say? We all work together, as one. We take the risk and form the Zodiac again? It might be a longshot, but it’s the only one we’ve got. It’s what Mason and May would want to do. And it’s the right thing to do.”

She slammed her fist into her palm. Waiting for a reaction, she didn’t dare to breath.

“Woo, go Pacifica!” Wendy shouted out. She’d been mostly silent during all the debates, only now speaking up to shatter the silence. “Well? What are you guys waiting for?”

That was the spark. Everyone ran around the room, getting into place. Unlike before there was no set order to the circle. People held on to whoever was nearest, forming the spirit of the Zodiac. Pacifica, roused by their action, helped Jheselbraum up to find her place in the circle.

Wendy stood to one side once again, in anticipation as the unbroken chain of hands finally reconnected. Everyone was together in one place at last, and the Zodiac was back together.

And nothing happened.

No crackling halo of energy surrounding them. No bright light or tingle as they’d got into place. No change at all. The sea of puzzled faces turned back to Pacifica. All her hopes had rested on this chance. It couldn’t fail now.

She wracked her mind, trying to recall anything she could about the Zodiac, whether from Mason’s research or her dreams. Last time they’d all been set on one goal. ‘Stop the portal’, that was it, the overriding mission they all shared. This time they didn’t know where to begin. To recreate the entire multiverse? The task seemed to vast to contemplate.

Pacifica thought instead of their enemies, of the ouroboros, so similar in shape to the Zodiac, unbroken, unending. Like the ankh, the symbol of the everlasting a-mortals. Now it reflected the eternal night they had worked so hard to bring about. Even their first Zodiac had been an unwitting part of it.

Pacifica knew what she needed to do. It was time to break the loop.

“Everyone, focus on one image. See the Zodiac as it was before, in the hangar. Picture it exactly as it was. Then imagine yourself somewhere else. Imagine a broken ring, imagine we aren’t all holding on to each other. Our thoughts will become real. If we prevent the Zodiac from existing the first time, we’ll prevent the a-mortals from using us for their schemes.” The others closed their eyes in concentration, mirroring Jheselbraum, who’d finally ceased whispering.

Looking outside the circle, Pacifica called over to the one other being left in all of reality. “Wendy, I need you to channel us. Use your Open Eye training, see the world as it was before and guide us to one thought, one goal.” The redhead nodded, and she too began to meditate and unite them together.

She began to feel the others coalescing. Other voices danced around her head, little more than whispers at first but quickly growing louder before becoming indistinguishable from her own thoughts. She soon realised that it wasn’t enough to just think of the cold hangar and their previous circle. It wouldn’t be strong enough to undo everything.

Silently, she pushed out with her mind, encouraging the others to think of more. To think of the beauty and variety of life, all that they were working so hard towards saving. That life might be temporary, subject to the whims of time. But better to have lived and lost than a stale everlasting existence or being snuffed out by the harsh plans of others.

Images rushed through Pacifica’s head, like one of her dreams. All the places she’d seen across the Earth, all the people she’d met. All the wondrous creatures Mason and Mabel had shown her and the fantastic worlds beyond her own.

A pale light began shine behind her eyelids. It was working. Her thoughts were completely intermingled with those of the others. The Squales dived through the cloud of water. Meredith peered out from behind the glass, the first supernatural creature he’d ever seen. Huddled together, she saw the Latropians doing their best to resist the dying light. All around him were aliens from all walks of life, living as one in the vast halls of Lottocron.

From the teeming birthing pools of the S’aren to the millions of spores spread by the Grown. From the bustling metropolis on Tengosa to They’d passed through countless dimensions and seen so many different people and cultures.

As the energy surrounding them grew and grew, their thoughts turned from the bigger picture to what they were really fighting for. For their families back home. For those already lost, like Tracey, Fiddleford, or Merrise’s parents, remembered how they were before the end, vibrant and alive. Dreaming to keep the Axolotl safe in his cloud sanctuary and save all the innocent children on a trillion planets.

And dreaming of the twins, those two who’d opened her eyes and shown her true love for the first time in her life. As the heartbeat of the universe filled her ears, that was what she held on to the most.

* * *

“The First will herald our last moments. It’s always been this way. We make the rules.”

Grenda heard the last words of the a-mortals before they raised their hands in prayer. She tried to run, to escape the inevitable, but there was no point. In moments they were all covered by the light, which spread faster and faster. Not just herself, but the a-mortals gathered in the hangar, the hundreds of ships amassed out in space, and even more beyond.

She felt the light sear her eyes and flow over her body. Every atom in her body cried out and split apart. It only took a handful of seconds before she, like all of reality, was simply erased.

Then, against all odds, the wave rolled back.

Grenda gave a gasping breath as she returned to life. Around her, the a-mortals were sprawled out, dazed and despondent. Even the bloated First was prone on its side, a piteously hideous wreck.

And in the centre of the hangar, where the Zodiac had been moments before, stood Wendy Corduroy. She took one look at her fallen enemies, her mouth turning up into a smirk. “Rules were made to be broken.” She took Grenda’s meaty hand and rushed out of the hangar before any of the a-mortals could react. “No time to explain. We’ve gotta get the others and get out of here!”

Awakening to the touch of cold stone beneath her palms, Pacifica jolted back when she stared up into the face a giant snake, poised to lunge at her with teeth bared. She prepared to defend herself, before realising the snake was nothing more than a statue, made of black obsidian.

She was in the monastery, the First’s temple at the heart of the space station. And she was alive. Incredibly, totally, alive. Their plan, their outrageous plan, had worked despite it being the remotest of hopes. The Zodiac had proved true, unaffected by the influence of the one whose sacred place she now found herself ensconced within.

The statue that had startled her was similar to the ouroboros, and the chamber was another worship hall for those unsettling faceless acolytes. She clasped her hands together, ‘praying’ that she wouldn’t run into them anytime soon.

If she was here, then the others would have most likely been scattered across the station and the monastery as well. The loop was broken, they’d restored all the dimensions to existence. Now they had a new problem: Getting away from this station and stopping the a-mortals once and for all. Even if they left them alone, that wouldn’t cool the fire in their hearts. They’d search for some new way to wipe everyone out. She knew that no matter how long that took, they’d find a way.

Another impossible task on her shoulders. That seemed to be her lot in life. At least she quickly found that she wasn’t alone. Behind the black statue she heard a quiet snoring. Sprawled out in a nook behind the snake, Merrise looked fast asleep.

Pacifica shook her awake. She just rolled over onto her side. “Hey, five more minutes ok. I feel like my whole body’s been hit by a bomb or something.”

“Typical, you’re worse than Mason.” Pacifica groused, before halting in her tracks. “Mason. Mabel too! Merry, look into my eyes!”

“It’s Merrise,” the girl grumbled, but finally wiped the sleep from her eyes and got up. She peered into Pacifica’s sapphire eyes and shrugged. “They’re pretty, but what’s the big deal?”

“That means they’re back. Somewhere, the twins are free.” 

The little girl in front of her lit up, raised fully from her nap and smiling widely. She was just as eager to reunite with the twins and started bounding off to search for them, Pacifica right on her tail.

Remembering her suit controls, Pacifica brought up the map of the station, showing the dozens of multi-coloured signals scattered around. To her immense delight and eliciting no great amount of surprise, the two closest signals were in the monastery, only a few rooms away.

Blue and Red, not far from her own Purple. Perfect.

“Apep’s a lot cuter than this freaky thing.” Mabel’s eyes were drawn to the circular statue that dominated the far end of the prayer nook. “Is this for real again, Dip? No more illusions or brains?”

“I think so.” Her brother, as always in a pinch, had his journal wide open, taking notes and jotting down observations. “Ouroboros, like in Paz’s dreams. You know, for months I’ve wished I was able to see the dreams too.”

“So you could record it all there, huh?” Mabel pointed to the journal, but Mason closed it and shook his head.

“No, not for that. I wanted Pacifica to have someone who knew exactly what she was going through. So she wasn’t so alone.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet, Mace,” Pacifica said as she strode into the room.

The twins shared a grin, then rushed towards Pacifica, swelling inside with emotion. The trio embraced, back together after too long.

“I’ve missed you missed you missed you soooooo much!” Mabel said as she squeezed Pacifica tight in her arms. “Even if we were inside your head the whole time, it’s not the same.”

“I know what you mean,” she replied. “No illusions, no copies, no parallel versions. Just the real you. Both of you.” She gave Mason a long kiss, savouring the chance, and Mabel graciously gave them some space.

When he finally broke the kiss, he saw Merrise over Pacifica’s shoulder. She was hanging back slightly, letting them reunite with each other first. Mason broke into a reassuring grin. “Don’t think I forgot about you either. Come here.”

Merrise didn’t need any more prompting, so ran over and jumped into Mason’s arms. He held her up between himself and his wife. “She was really brave the whole time,” Pacifica explained. “Didn’t let the end of the universe keep her down for long.”

Laughing in their arms, Merrise snuggled tighter. It had been a long time since she’d felt as at peace as right now, held by someone who cared so much for her. She was about to ask what they were going to do next, when she went rigid and pale.

Unbeknownst to any of them, a hooded acolyte had entered the chamber. Armed with some kind of staff topped with a curving blade, he blocked the exit and charged at them. Merrise was the first to see him, and, suddenly terrified, screamed.

Pacifica leapt away, but Mason was closer to the attacker. He dodged clumsily, only just missing the blade. He and Merrise were lying on the floor now, completely exposed. He tried to right himself and get back up to run.

“Dad, look out!” Merrise barrelled into his side, pushing him out of the way before the metal clanged down on the stone floor where he’d been seconds before.

The acolyte raised the staff again, not intending to miss a second time. Blade arm raised high, his whole body suddenly shuddered. Then a second time, before collapsing.

Mabel was positioned behind him in a combat stance, having just administered a roundhouse kick to the back of his head. “That’s what you get when you mess with the Pines!”

Pacifica helped Mason get back on his feet, though he was still shaking slightly. “Are you ok? We’re safe for now.”

He wordlessly shook his head but pointed to Merrise. “I’m fine. Just…” He knelt down before Merrise. She was unhurt from the tussle, but he had to ask her a burning question. “You called me ‘Dad’.”

“I… I kinda did.” Mason had a blank look on his face, and she tried to clarify. “It was just a slip of the tongue, I’m sorry if you didn’t like it, we can forget about it.”

He still didn’t react. He was still processing his emotions, trying to catalogue how he felt. Pacifica and Mabel both expected him to frown, and to admonish Merrise for being silly. But as Mason’s smile slowly grew, they realised he was reacting very differently.

“Dad, huh? I guess that makes you a Pines now.” Merrise still seemed confused. “If that’s what you want, I mean. To join our family.” He looked to Pacifica, expectantly grinning. “To be one of us. To be our…” he swallowed, the weight of the moment upon him. “To be our daughter.”

Tears started forming in both Mason and Merrise’s eyes. He hugged the child close to him, and both of them laughed through the tears. Even Pacifica started welling up, much to Mabel’s shock. She knelt down beside her husband and the alien girl who’d given them another chance to try again.

Mabel couldn’t help but be happy for them, a new family forged in the strangest of ways. But she knew their time for enjoying the moment was brief. The unconscious acolyte laid out on the floor was evidence of that; his friends would be on the way. 

A burst of static came from the wrists of each of their survival suits, and a voice called out clear. “This is Candy, over. Is anyone out there?”

* * *

As the a-mortals recovered from the surprising revelation of their continued existence, the call went out across their space station, linking together the Zodiac in the only safe way they could. With their enemies quickly regaining strength, a plan was needed fast, before the whole cycle repeated itself.

In the team’s suits, silver fibres got to work, forming new connections and bringing them all together. Candy, alone in one of the corridors circling the centre monastery, broadcast her message to all that would hear.

“I’ve transmitted the nano-patch, we all have the comms upgrade now. Call in when you receive this message.” 

In the monastery, Mason, Mabel, and Pacifica’s wrists exploded with a gabble of voices, their comms overwhelmed with responses that they struggled to make out. 

“Speak one at a time please!” Candy shouted over the ruckus. She wanted to confirm one-by-one that the others had all successfully returned to reality. Though they had arrived seemingly in random locations, if they’d all made it back then it wouldn’t take them long to reconvene thanks to the station’s small size.

“May here, loud and clear! Got the whole trio with me.”

“I’ve got Grenda.” It was Wendy, she sounded out of breath. “We have the small problem of a hangar full of angry a-mortals waking up right about now.”

“One thing at a time,” Candy replied. “Additionally I need to check we’re all here; not all of us have suits after all. Merrise, Zera… J- Jheselbraum, am I saying that right? Are you all within range of a communicator?”

Merrise eagerly grabbed Mason’s arm and spoke into the wrist. “Present!”

A few seconds later the crackle of Zera’s voice came over the line. “I’m back with Bo, I can hear you.” Mabel failed to hide a grin on hearing that she was alright. It felt like an age since they’d been with each other last.

“I’m here too, thanks for asking.”

Somehow Mabel’s voice had spoken over the line. She was momentarily confused, and about to ask what she was hearing, but Candy realised the mistake. “Apologies, Bel. I assume you’re-“

“I’m with the paper clones. Can’t get rid of them it seems.”

“At least you’re together.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good thing,” Pacifica said into her wrist. “As long as we’re here, the a-mortals can try and use us again. If they make us form another Zodiac…” She didn’t need to spell it out. “We need a way out, and a way to stop them for good.”

“Easier said than done,” Mason said, speaking both directly to his wife and into his comm so the others could hear. “We can’t use the hoppers anymore, they were only ever designed for random, one-way jumps.”

“And the ship we came in is totally busted!” Mabel said. “Hey Bo, you know some teleport spells, how about that?”

“Nothing powerful enough for the ranges we’re talking about I’m afraid,” he responded.

“If I may provide a possibility.” 

Pacifica recognised the slow, dreamlike voice over the radio. “Oracle? Is that you?”

“She’s with me.” It was Eli. “I think she’s better now; her eyes are all open at least. Here, she wants to talk.”

There was a pause as he readjusted the speaker, then they all heard the words of Jheselbraum. “We in the Zodiac do not have the answers to this conundrum. Now my sight is restored I can see that. Those within the open eyes shall find our salvation. The circle cannot provide us with victory, but the _enclosed_ circle might. Mason and Mabel Pines.” The twins perked up on hearing their names. “You alone know the solution. You alone heard it from our enemies.”

“What the heck was that all about?” Merrise asked, but Pacifica tried to shush her. “Open eyes? Circles?” 

Pacifica sighed and huddled up next to her, she supposed, new daughter. The very idea of it made her heart leap, but she had to keep Merrise quiet for now.

Ignoring the confused chatter on the comms and even the others in the room with them, Mason and Mabel locked eyes in an intense stare. Hyper-focused on one another, Mason was the first to speak, quickly and precisely. “Think: what did Crane say about his plan?”

“Lotsa stuff. About his age, all that stuff about destroying the world.”

“No, it must be something else. Something to do with some flaw, some slip-up. His grand plan was to bring us here.”

“Right, he lured us here, made us look like fools. Wait… that’s an idea. You don’t think it’s still functional?”

“The lure? Possibly. Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s a huge risk. It might not stay stable.”

“Got any better ideas?”

“Makes sense, to turn their trap back on themselves. Must have controls somewhere.”

Merrise looked back and forth between the two of them, then whispered to Pacifica, baffled by the display. "What are they doing?"

"It's a twin thing. They know each other better that anyone else could." The twins silently nodded to each other. “Judging by that, I’d say they have a plan.”

“Oh, we have a plan,” Mason said with a decisive grin.

Mabel sheepishly continued. “You’re probably not gonna like it though.”

Pacifica shrugged. “When are our plans ever smooth sailing? I trust you two to get us through this. So, we ready to get going and get some payback against those a-mortals?”

Filled with determination, the trio shared a grin before Mason raised his wrist. “Team? This is Mason here. You guys have all seen the planet below, right?”

Pacifica’s mouth fell open in shock as she pictured the grey dust ball below. Covered by silver pattern marking a vast circle enclosed within a metal triangle and lit by a harsh blue. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

* * *

The plan was falling apart. Gabriel Crane didn’t want to admit it, but with his fellow a-mortals lying around him in various states of disarray he felt the situation rapidly slipping out of his control. Even the First – his idol, the peak of their ideals – was a pitiful sight, struggling to even move his single-celled body.

How had the reversal occurred? It had been so sudden. One minute he had been fighting with the Pines twins, wrestling for control of the nexus that would determine the fate of all. The next he was back in reality, crushingly alive along with everyone else. For so long he’d clung to this life, but to be brought back from the brink was an exhausting experience.

Yet alarms blared all around. He and his brothers and sisters would not get to rest so easily. Hetepheres seemed the most composed, her royal dignity coming in useful at a time of crisis. Another small quake shook the station.

“-recalibrated the whole network. We’re going to fall into it if we don’t correct our orbit!”

Crane heard Hetepheres’ words but was still too out of it to focus on the specific meaning. A fatalistic ennui had set in. What was left to do? The Pines had won. They were doomed to eventually suffer a cruel fate at the hands of chance, never knowing from where the blow would come, perpetually petrified of taking any action.

Which is why, when the Egyptian tried to rouse him, he just limply laid back on the floor of the hangar. “Get up Crane! We don’t have time!”

“Time?” he replied. “Time is the one thing we’ll always have.” He gave a dry, rasping chuckle. Hetepheres sneered at him and walked away. He called after her one last time, then closed his eyes in resignation. “Fight back if you want. We are just as vulnerable as them.”

“Fine. If you won’t help, I’ll stop them myself. They haven’t made it off the station yet. I will show them just how ‘vulnerable’ _I_ am.”

By the slimmest chance, there was a single working spaceship docked aboard the station. Of all the a-mortals of all the disparate worlds that had arrived to observe the final end, one non-human had been selected to join the First to witness the Zodiac’s completion in person.

The Lottoqueen had come through the portal and landed in one of the four hangars set around the station’s rim, right before the moment that would have been the a-mortal’s biggest success.

Now, the expensive golden pleasure craft, much larger and more decadent than the Lottoqueen’s practical needs, was the only means of departure. It would be a tight fit for the entire team, but there were no other options.

Jheselbraum was used to such height restrictions already. Her foresight had led herself and Eli to this hangar, so they might prepare the escape route. With little time before the a-mortals mustered a retaliatory force.

The ship was one thing, but it would never get them far enough away. They were still in a strange unknown dimension and surrounded by hundreds of enemy ships. The only way they’d make it out in one piece would be if they had an alternate shortcut.

As it so happened, the a-mortals had provided the perfect back door. In their mad plan to bait the Eponymous here, they’d constructed a fully functional portal on a massive scale. It made transporting their forces to watch the apocalypse trivial as well. But now it would provide the opposite function.

Candy had rendezvoused with the trio and Merrise in the central monastery, the hub of all the controls relating to the portal. A concealed room behind the First’s vacant chamber housed what they’d need. Working with Mason and all their combined knowledge about the mechanics of dimensional travel, they hurried to alter the coordinates fixed into the portal, resetting it to open in one specific place.

Home.

“You’re gonna love it, Merrise,” Mabel said as the small group headed down the glass docking tube to the outer ring. “Beautiful forests, sunny skies, enough weirdness to fill a journal… or more.” She and Mason chuckled. They were feeling lighter now that they were so close to getting away.

“We’re not out of the woods yet.” Pacifica had her head down, focused on something. Even as they neared the end, there was something nagging at her, keeping her from letting down her guard. “Or in the woods, I suppose in this case. But it will be good to finally have this all done,” she added.

“Not long now,” Candy said, too happily focused on her work to detect any of Pacifica’s minor negativity. “The bugging device I planted gives me remote oversight of the remaining portal calculations. Another marvel from the parallel Fiddleford H. McGucket!”

“Yeah, see Merrise,” Mabel said, patting Candy on the back, “we’ve got it all figured out.”

“I can’t wait!”, the girl breathlessly responded. “You guys have been so nice to me, I sometimes can’t believe it.”

“That’s the Pines, we look out for everybody. Let me tell you, you’re gonna have the best mom and dad ever. You’ve got a perfect big old house to move into as well, way batter than living on the streets. Dipper can teach you how to write journals and stargaze, and Pacifica can spoil you with fancy clothes and give you business and dancing tips! And there’s so much other wonderful stuff on Earth, like ice cream and puppies and sweaters!”

While Mabel continued to regale the enraptured girl with the fantastical life that awaited back home, Mason hung back to speak with Pacifica. He’d noticed her reticence to talk and knew her well enough that he could leap straight to the issue at hand with no pussyfooting around.

“Hey, is it something to do with what went on while we were inside your brain? I couldn’t really tell what was going on outside even before Crane showed up.”

“It’s kinda that.” Pacifica didn’t deflect either. If there was anyone she could confide in it was Mason. “Just one more unanswered question really. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Well, like Candy said. We’ll be home soon. No more dreams or mysteries or threats to our lives.”

Pacifica gave a sharp laugh. “Yeah right. Mace I don’t mean to tease, but do you not remember all the crazy stuff we got into back in the day. Like you could ever settle down completely, no journal investigating whatsoever.” She laughed again, louder this time, unable to keep it in.

“Yeah, that’s probably true,” Mason admitted as they re-entered the outer ring. “But at least you’ll be able to sleep at night, knowing we’re all together as a family. All safe.“

“Not yet we’re not!” Mabel yelled as sparks of light exploded in the circular doorframe leading to the docking tube. Three a-mortals that none of the them recognised were aiming rifles at them from the corridor beyond, fencing them in.

They all dived to the sides of the corridor, making for the only cover they had. A bright flash hit Candy before she could make it, and the arm of her survival suit was blasted away. Mabel leant around the passage and returned fire, firing blue rays to match the red.

Though their survival suits were bullet proof, the red bolts of energy whizzing past were clearly more advanced than anything they’d tested the suits against. Candy crawled to the edge of the hallway, weakened but still fighting to survive.

Exchanging fire back and forth, Mabel managed to get a hit on one the attackers, an a-mortal woman wearing a massive ballroom dress. Her companions wore similar archaic garb, heavy plate metal armour and ragged robes, unsuited for a fight and contrasting heavily with the advanced station they stood inside.

With only two enemies left, Pacifica and Mason nodded to one another and charged at them. Dodging the lasers, they piled onto the armoured a-mortal, bringing her down. Merrise weaved past the remaining blasts being fired and leapt at the last a-mortal. With Mabel’s help they overpowered him as well.

With the battle over for now, Mabel ran over to her friend, clutching her arm. “Candy! Are you alright, how badly did they hurt you, is it serious?!”

“Relax, May. It’s not too bad, just some burns. My suit’s already repairing itself.”

Mabel helped her up and slung her good arm around her shoulder. “I’ll help you to the hangar, we can patch you up some more when we’re there.”

“If we ever get there. Look!” Merrise pointed down the hallway right as another squad of a-mortals arrived.

The armed aggressors raised their laser guns, but before they could fire a battle cry rang out. An echo of the trio’s voices came down the corridor. Anti-Mabel and the paper clones fell upon the a-mortals like a whirlwind from behind. With their condensed strength, Quattro and Andromeda bravely punched at their attackers, knocking them back in single punches. Bel took a more mercenary approach, ramming herself at the nearest target and wrestling them to the floor with a stab from her wrist blade.

The opponents were quickly dealt with and Mason was relieved to see a friendly face, even if it resembled his own so strongly. “Quattro, great timing.

“I aim to please.” The young clone doffed his cap. Beside him Andromeda rushed past to inspect Candy, wailing about how terrible it was that she’d been hurt.

Mason took a longer look at Bel for the first time, having never had much time to speak with the so-called evil version of his sister. She was staring down at the a-mortal she’d killed, a youthful man in colourful silks, and scowling. “I know these bastards. This isn’t like them. They’re getting desperate.”

“They’re taking risks cause they think there’s nothing left to lose. Be thankful they haven’t unleashed any magic powers yet.”

Mason’s offered explanation just made Bel narrow her eyes further and stare at him with an uncomfortable look. “I’ll never understand it, first they’re all about living forever, now they don’t care. We must have really messed with them, bringing them back from the dead.”

“Come on,” Pacifica said, “we don’t have time for dawdling. Hangar’s this way.” She pointed in the opposite direction than the a-mortals and teammates had come from and their doubled-up party headed off. With Mabel helping the wounded Candy, they were slower than before. There was a new edge of risk, with the a-mortals at large again.

The hangar was at the opposite side of the station to the one where they’d made their foolish stand as the Zodiac. Wendy along with Grenda had already arrived, and now the redhead was standing guard by the entrance.

At the moment the open hangar door looked out onto empty space, but a small quake shifted the view to reveal the edge of the grey planet below.

“Orbit’s failing,” Candy stated through halting breaths. “Changing the portal’s nature is upsetting the gravity in this whole system.”

Laid out in front of the hangar was their gold-encrusted escape ship. Grenda unplugged a fuel line, while Eli laid underneath, adjusting the undercarriage. He wiped his hands on an oily rag and slid out to greet them. “I’ve checked it all over. It’s an alien design but it seems flyable.”

“This time Mabel’s not flying,” Pacifica said decisively. “I feel like throwing up enough as it is with all this shaking.” She clutched her stomach and gave a groan.

“Are we really taking her?” Eli asked, directing his scorn towards Anti-Mabel.

Pacifica spoke up again before anyone could argue. “She helped us with the Zodiac and the a-mortals want her dead or captured as much as the rest of us. She’s coming with us.”

“Finally someone who appreciates my talents.” Bel strutted into the ship with head held high.

“Great, we’re gonna have two me’s when we get home,” the original Mabel said, pouting. “If she tries to blow up our dimension remember I told you so.”

While the others prepared for the imminent flight and portal trip, Pacifica saw Jheselbraum staring out into space, turned away from the group. She wandered over, the burning question still driving her.

“I am glad to see we have returned to normality, Pacifica.” The oracle didn’t face her.

“If this is what you call normal. You feeling alright now?”

Seven eyes turned to look at her. Jheselbraum’s expression softened. “Better than alright. My connection to the Axolotl is once again restored. I see what I was missing before. The critical element that I overlooked, so fixed was I on the moment of the Zodiac.”

“Yeah, I have something to ask you about that actually.” Pacifica began to open up, words flooding out of her. “Why are we still alive? Why was I so damn important again? I have to know, please.” The oracle’s head slowly turned away again, and Pacifica knew she wasn’t going to get a straight answer. She half-smiled and tried to forget it. “You can see the future again, right? How does it look?”

“This will be the critical stage,” she said solemnly. “As our numbers grow we risk making it easier for the a-mortals to force us back into the Zodiac. With each member gathered the mental energy build-up will increase. The quicker we are all away and the less time we spend as a united group the better.”

“But do we make it? Does the future look _good_?”

“It looks…” The oracle shut her eyes in concentration, before quickly facing Pacifica again and winking with half of them. “It looks unmissable. Go Pacifica, you will soon learn about the true saviour.”

“But I-“

“Hey, Paz.” Mason was beside her, gesturing for them to return to the group. “Candy has some last-minute test she wants to run before we get going.”

“R- right.” She looked back as Jheselbraum, who only offered the same silent contemplation of the stars. The others were huddled by the steps into the ship. Mabel seemed to be buzzing with energy, staring hungrily at the ship. Pacifica tried to find a certain person in the crowd. “Where’s Merrise?”

“Already aboard”, Candy said. “The rest of us need calibrating. I need to do an accurate mass scan using our suits to make sure we’re all roughly the same as before. We might as well take one less risk when we enter that obscene portal down there. I can’t do anything for the offworlders though, they’ll just have to hope my estimates are close enough.”

She tapped a control on her suit, mindful of avoiding the injured section of her arm that had already mostly sealed back up. At once, the group’s suits tightened around themselves, constricting and mapping their bodies as accurately as possible. After a few seconds, the suits breathed out again. The indicator on the hoppers flashed green.

All except for Pacifica’s, which was red. It began beeping. “There’s some kind of error,” she said, seeing an exclamation mark pop up on the hopper.

“Hmm, hold on a sec.” Candy repeated the test and Pacifica once again felt the suit clamp down. When it released, the same result flared up. “Interesting. There’s some kind of discrepancy. The suit’s giving me abnormal readings for you.”

“Is it something wrong?” Mason asked, a hint of worry for his wife’s safety in the upcoming portal transit creeping into his voice. He held her hand, and Pacifica too was worried enough to fiddle with her silver pendant.

Candy turned Pacifica’s wrist over and tapped a command into her suit’s screen. “Apparently the suit is registering Pacifica as _two_ separate lifeforms. How curious!” As Candy spoke, Pacifica’s hand unconsciously glided down from her necklace, past her chest and to her lower belly. “Could be an error in the code, these suits have probably been through a lot of wear in the last few weeks-”

“I know what this is!” Pacifica blurted out. Everyone turned to her as she gave a hysterical laugh. “Fully repaired, just like that damn Healer said.”

Tears began forming and Mason wiped them away. “Hey, it’s ok Paz. Whatever this is, we can fix it.”

She pressed her hands to his cheeks and smiled at her husband “Don’t you see? It’s already been fixed. The suit’s saying there are two lifeforms because there _are_ two lifeforms.” She pointed to her stomach for emphasis. She could barely hold back the joyous tears as Mason’s face slowly lit up with the full understanding.

“But- no, surely- it can’t-“ He stopped being able to speak. Giving several astonished gasps, he suddenly whirled Pacifica round. “This is amazing!” The two of them kissed, a jubilant connection that felt wholly inadequate for the gravity of the moment, then Mason too placed his hand on Pacifica’s belly.

“Uh, hold the phone a hot second!” Mabel pushed her way past Candy to the side of the happy couple. Her mouth was wide open with a manic glee bubbling its way up through her face. “You’re telling me that you’re _pregnant_?! I thought that was like 100% impossible!” She reverently placed her hand next to her brother’s on Pacifica stomach.

“Ever since that night in Dimension 52. It’s why I’ve been vomiting so much lately. Sickness from…” Pacifica could hardly bring herself to say it, willing herself to stay composed and not let another wave of tears consume her. “From the baby.”

Jheselbraum finally wafted over, smiling at the trio’s joyous reactions. Pacifica laughed. “You knew, of course. That’s why I was the centre of everything. It wasn’t me at all. Even in the Zodiac, the three of us didn’t represent the Pine Tree. It was them, inside of me. A whole new Pines.”

“You, and by extension the rest of the Zodiac survived because of the new life within you. The First tried to pervert our intention off course. It thought it could twist our purpose to aid the old, to spread the decay and entropy. But you and your future child represented something different, something it could not destroy. New life, able to grow, able to change. The possibility to be whoever they choose to be. Nothing could destroy that.”

“Oh my gosh!” Mabel had been full of pent up energy before, impatient to get on the spaceship, but now she was over the moon. “You’re having a kid. My brother and my best friend, are having a baby!”

Congratulations were given all around. Candy and Grenda, who’d known the pair for years understood how much this meant to them. Eli came over and put his hand on Mabel’s shoulder, smiling warmly along with the joyous couple.

“What’s all the fuss going on out here?” Merrise’s head leant out of the ship. “I heard a lot of cheering.”

Pacifica yelled up to her. “It means when we get home you’re going to have a new brother or sister.”

The girl was confused. She looked to Pacifica and Mason, as if they were about to tell her she would have to go back to the streets of Tengosa. Mason saw her confusion and knelt down in front of her. “You already brought so much light to our lives Merrise. You were a second chance at a life we thought was lost to us. But now it’s even greater than that. We’re a family, and together Pacifica and I can help you grow up however you want. As far as I’m concerned, we now have two children.”

Merrise jumped down the ship’s steps and into Mason’s arms, clinging tightly. He was about to give into his emotions again, to let it all out and celebrate the moment. But their respite was short lived.

Laser blasts and small explosions ricocheted from out in the hallway. Wendy stuck her head into the hangar, frenzied and clutching her rifle. “We’ve got unfriendlies coming from both sides. We’ll have eye contact soon.”

Mason pushed Merrise back into the ship and helped rush Candy inside. With her wound she was in no condition to defend herself. The others rushed to the door to help Wendy, but she held up a fist. “Wait. There’s something else.”

Sparks of orange and purple exploded down the corridor in one direction, and a veil of smoke obscured the view. Out of the cacophony, Zera came hurtling forwards. Though a number of small blast marks ran up one of the alien’s legs, she seemed able to run without it causing too much pain. The moment Mabel saw her she ran from Eli’s grip and embraced her. She fussed over the injuries and held her close for the first time in ages.

Bokamoso followed Zera out from behind, small fires flickering along the base of his robes, then turned and yelled a spell into the smoke. Green electricity leapt from his fingertips and smothered cries quickly followed. “That should hold them back for a few more minutes.” Out of breath, he stood tall and addressed the group. “This everyone? Are we all here?”

“Unfortunately,” Jheselbraum intoned to his confused reaction. “This is the breaking point. We have everyone together again. We must act now and leave.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Zera said from Mabel’s arms. She hurried towards the gilded ship.

Mabel was about to follow, when a spray of blasts collided with the side of the hangar door. Both Wendy and Mabel leant round and fired off blasts into the smoke, hoping to dissuade their attackers. From one of the many pouches lining the Black Hole armour, Wendy found a small pistol and tossed it to Eli, so as to bolster their numbers. Bo also continued to let off spells, all in an effort to block the smoke-filled corridor.

With everyone else bundling into the cramped ship, Pacifica and Mason stayed behind the defenders, peeking out as they waited for the portal below to recalibrate. It was then that Pacifica realised there was something wrong with the a-mortals’ attack. All the noise and laser blasts were coming from one side of the hallway only, the same one Zera and Bo had been chased down. In the other direction there was silence, not a hint of activity.

At that moment, Pacifica realised that wasn’t an accident. The same moment she felt a strand of thick paper coil around her ankle.

She cried out as she was tripped up and fell to the floor. Dragged away down the corridor, only Mason could react and give chase, the others too occupied with covering their flank. “Pacifica! Hold on! I’ll get you out of there!”

He grabbed her hands, straining to hold her in place against the paper’s tug. It wasn’t enough, and he too ended up being pulled along with his wife away from the hangar. Mason abandoned that strategy and ran around to try and tear the paper, but it was too thick for him to break with his hands alone.

“Forget it Mace, go, get out of here!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

The paper strand split off into numerous tendrils that shot out at Mason, spinning him into a tight web. He fell to floor, wrapped up and helpless, as Pacifica was dragged around the corner away from him.

“Nobody’s going anywhere!” Pacifica stared up to where the strand entrapping her terminated, right where Hetepheres was standing surrounded by a halo of flared paper tentacles. “Especially not you, _my dear_.”

Before the Egyptian could get her hands on Pacifica the strand around her ankle suddenly went slack and split. Hetepheres screamed out in anger as out of the ether the armoured form of Wendy appeared, wielding a jagged blade and lofting the torn fragment of papyrus.

“Go, run!” she cried, before charging at the a-mortal queen. Multiple paper coils intercepted her in the approach, ensnaring her wrists and ankles. Wendy tried to flicker away, to turn invisible once more, but Hetepheres’ strands knocked off her helmet. With a flick of her wrist, she forced Wendy down onto her knees. 

“You dare assault a queen?! That demands the highest penalty.” Another papyrus wrapping twisted around Wendy’s neck, choking her. Her blade fell limply from her hand and clattered to the metal floor.

“Pacifica, run!” Wendy cried out in strangled breaths, but a paper vice clamped down over her mouth.

“That’s enough out of you,” Hetepheres said. “Now for what I came for.”

Pacifica hadn’t moved from the spot, still overwhelmed and hoping Wendy would finish the job. She jerked back into life at the Egyptians words, and tried to ineffectively crawl away on her forearms. When the papyrus slowly swirled around her periphery again, all resistance faded from her.

This time Hetepheres clutched the end of the strand, pulling her directly instead of using her power. Each tug on the strand sliding her towards the a-mortal was accompanied by more words from her previously honeyed lips. “You took everything away from us. Our perfect dream of absolution.” Pacifica stared around in a panic for anything that could possibly save her. “If we can’t have the Zodiac, then I’ll have to make you pay.” Closer and closer. “I will take the greatest pleasure from finally meeting those paper friends of yours. Unravelling them, piece by piece, might make up from the infinite loss you have inflicted upon me!”

Out of the corner of Pacifica’s eye she saw Wendy, wriggling on the floor, nearly out of air. Yet her eyes pointed not towards Hetepheres, but to the sword she’d dropped in the struggle. Wendy pushed herself, using what little oxygen she had left to grab the sword. Trying to instruct her with only her eyes, she winked.

Pacifica understood. She was right at Hetpheres’ feet, only a single pull from being in the Egyptian’s grip. “And now, my dear, you will experience our same fear.”

Hetepheres pulled on the rope, bringing Pacifica right into her grasp. At the same moment, Wendy tossed her blade to Pacifica with all her strength. As Hetepheres pulled the strand inexorably towards herself, she unwittingly thrust the caught weapon into the centre of her chest.

The grip on Pacifica loosened and she fell back, still holding the blade. Wendy too broke free and breathed in deeply. Hetepheres gave a last, stuttering whine, then collapsed onto her knees. Her eyes stared away at nothing as her 4000-year reign finally came to an end.

While Pacifica and Wendy watched, the Egyptian’s youthful features began to decay. First wrinkles formed, and her dark hair turned grey and dishevelled. Her skin desiccated and rotted away. No mummification for this queen – her bones aged away in seconds, leaving only a pile of dust in the hallway.

Pacifica tossed away the sword and helped Wendy up. “Thanks. You really saved me back there Wendy.”

“It’s nothing girl.” Wendy rubbed her neck and gave a strangled cough. “Us Gravity Falls girls have got to stick together.”

Somehow, even in the worst of crises, the redhead managed to act like nothing mattered too much, Pacifica thought. Despite how calm she seemed to be, Pacifica couldn’t help but see the red marks on her neck. Even after all the bad she’d done, all the times she’d personally attacked her and her family, Wendy was still trying to do the right thing and mend her ways.

“Come on. We’ve gotta go.” Pacifica patted her friend on the shoulder. As Wendy recovered her stamina, the pair ran back down the hallway, leaving the Black Hole mask behind.

* * *

Stopping to help unravel Mason’s bindings, they returned to find the hangar in a state of disarray. The a-mortals had made a forward push, invading the hangar and nearly overpowering the group. Bokamoso had been hurt badly in the fray, taking a shot to his ribs and putting him out of the fight. The attackers had been repelled, but only just.

Seeing Wendy return with the others raised Mabel’s spirits at least. “Great, you’re back. Candy says the portal’s ready, but it won’t last long. Bye bye multiverse, hello Earth!”

From the ship’s upper cockpit, Bel leant out the window. “Now get in the ship, ya pale imitations, and we can blow this popsicle stand. Chop chop.”

Pacifica stepped up onto the gangplank, seeing the others strapped into the rows of tightly packed seats. Merrise waved at her from inside and she couldn’t help but give a little wave back. Eli and Mabel had been the only two left on guard duty, expecting another imminent wave from the a-mortals, so there wasn’t much room left in the ship for them with herself, Mason, and Wendy on top of that. It would have to do.

“Wait.” Mason halted her before she could enter the ship. “We’ve got our escape, but the a-mortals aren’t gonna give all this up when we leave. They seem a tad fatalistic right now, if we leave them like this they might try again or go on a rampage!”

“You’re right.” Pacifica stepped back down into the hangar. “They’ve got as much time and power as they need to come up with an alternative.”

“So what can we do?” Mabel asked. “They’ve got all those ships and this station. We can’t beat them. We’ve already got too many wounded as it is. I don’t want to lose anyone, not when we’re so close to getting away.”

“I’ve got it!” Eli snapped his fingers. “The portal! We can use the portal.”

“Use it as a weapon?” There was a hint of disappointment in Mabel’s voice, like she was once again sad to see her Great Uncle’s project used for ill.

“Theoretically,” Mason said while scratching his chin, “we know that even our small-scale portal can cause unimaginable destruction. This bigger model might be enough to destroy the whole planet if we mess with the output enough.”

Wendy, onboard with the plan, tapped her comm unit. “Candy, need you to send me the portal calibration controls. Yeah, no time to argue, just do it.”

Mason frowned as the control display appeared on Wendy’s forearm. “You can’t tamper with those settings, even the most delicate adjustments-“

“Dude, I don’t have to worry about that, I _want_ something to go wrong. Duh.”

“Oh, right.” Inwardly, he wondered if Eli and Wendy’s quick acceptance of the plan was something to do with their Open Eye indoctrination. They’d both studied the portal extensively in the past. Leaping to a portal-based solution would be the logical approach.

“There’s one small thing you’re missing,” Pacifica said. “We can’t alter the portal settings unless someone stays on this side. Otherwise nobody will make it home.”

The ramifications of this were obvious. Anyone left behind would be caught in the same portal blast. Before anyone could voice those concerns though, the steps leading up to the ship folded up into the door, and the golden vessel began lifting off the ground. 

“Diavolo!” Mabel ran around to the front of the ship. Sitting at the controls and smirking all the while, Anti-Mabel half-heartedly saluted at her counterpart, before revving the engines. The ship soared off towards the vacuum of space, leaving Mabel in the dust.

As it was about to breach the hangar’s thin atmospheric shell, the ship shuddered to a grinding halt. Though the engines were clearly straining, the ship remained suspended in the air. Inexorably it was pulled back to the ground, Bel’s attempt to flee prematurely stopped in its tracks.

Having recognised the effect, Mason turned to the hangar entrance. Surrounded by dozens of other a-mortals, the Tool Maker’s outstretched hand held the ship in place. The scratchy voice of the Lottoqueen was laughing at their futile escape. Even the First, atop his floating platform was lying in wait in the hallway beyond.

Wendy rushed towards the a-mortals, yelling and firing her rifle in bursts. The retaliatory blasts missed her by inches, and as she slammed a button on the hangar wall. A bulkhead slid down to block the entrance, but bullets continued to ricochet off the metal surface. “It’s not gonna hold for long!”

The Lottoqueen’s ship’s engines spluttered and switched off, followed by the hatch swinging open and Zera emerging. “What’s going on out here? The other Mabel said you were taking too long and tried to power up, then we heard gunfire and the ship stopped working.”

“It’s one of the a-mortals,” Mason said, running his hand through his hair as the panic of the situation started to set in. “He has the power to control any piece of technology. We’ve all got to pile in the ship now and go.”

Mabel grabbed her brother by the shoulders. “Dipper, if we try that they’ll be no-one to stop the Tool Maker. We’ll be dead in the water.”

“So,” Eli said, “what you’re saying is, you need someone to cover your backs.” He turned over the laser pistol in his hands, feeling its weight. Then he turned to Wendy. “Together. Like Ivan would have wanted.”

Wendy spent a few seconds considering the choices, then nodded. “We’ll go out like he did. A blaze of glory.”

“But not for the mission anymore. For them.”

“You can’t be serious!” Mabel cried. “We’re all supposed to leave together.”

“May, we knew the risks. Not all of us were ever gonna survive this fight.” Wendy ran a hand over her neck, wincing as she brushed over the bruised areas. “Someone has to hold off the a-mortals so that you can get away. Then we can blow the portal once you’re safe.”

“But you’re our friends. No, more than that.” She looked to both Wendy and Eli, on the verge of tears. “More than that. I already lost Rico before. Not you two as well.”

“It’s a bad job, I know.” Wendy sighed and rested her rifle on her shoulder. “But we signed up for it, me and Eli. To give our lives to the cause if need be. What better cause than making sure you guys get to live your lives?”

“You really mean it?” Mason asked quietly. Saying goodbye to a friend he’d known for so long was honestly something he did have some experience with, either departing every summer from Gravity Falls or the long separation of the last few years. But this was a permanent, final goodbye. He wasn’t sure he was ready to lose Wendy, someone who’d always represented a rock-solid foundation that never faltered.

“Hey dude, you don’t need me anymore.” She’d seen right through him of course. “You’re the guy who trekked around the world and always fought the odds. The best adventure is still ahead of you. I can handle this myself.”

Before Mason could leave, he hugged Wendy as a friend for the last time, then stood beside his wife. Pacifica shook hands with Wendy, a layer of formality still present between them. But she’d warmed enough to the redhead to give a heartfelt farewell. “Thanks for saving me. When I was all lost after the end. Then with Hetepheres. I think that about makes up for all the attempts you made on our lives.”

“Wow, is that praise from _the_ Pacifica Pines? I’m honoured.”

Pacifica laughed. “Still joking right to the end, Red.” She smiled at Wendy, the two of them finally having broken the ice after all this time. Pacifica’s eyes then shifted over to where Mabel was still awkwardly standing by Eli. She gave him a curt nod. “We’ll leave you guys alone. Come on Mason.” She led her husband by the hand, shuffling past Zera and into the ship.

With no other distractions, Mabel was forced to finally confront the idea that the man in front of her would be staying behind. “You don’t have to do this alone. I should stay with you. This is my fight too.”

“Not this time. I’m doing this for you. I always have. And that means that you need to get away from here.”

Mabel threw her arms around him. “It feels like we never had enough time. We could’ve sorted things out. Finally figured out exactly what we _were_ together.” 

“I guess we’re never gonna have that big talk after all. I’ve made some pretty big mistakes in my life. So has Wendy. It’s better this way. I don’t think things could ever quite go back to the way they were before. Besides… you’ve already got another chance. I saw the way you ran for her.” He looked over her shoulder to where the S’aren was standing by the ship. “Look after her for me, Zera.” The alien nodded, understanding the extent of his words.

Deep inside Mabel didn’t want to let Eli go. There had to be some other way, some secret solution that would get everyone out together. In this moment she couldn’t think of one though, and feebly tried to dissuade him. “But I still care about you… I still… I still…”

“Still what?” He raised an eyebrow. “You can’t say it, after all this time. It’s too complicated a word for May Pines.” He cupped her cheek and deeply kissed her, slow and lingering. “Well I love _you_, ok? Which is why I want to see you on that ship, soaring away.” Mabel finally stopped being able to hold back the weeping. Eli smiled despite the heartache. “Go May. Go and keep on fighting for what’s right, all across our world. Be the inspiration you were to me.”

She stared up at him through tears, then whipped her head away. Sprinting across the hangar, she bounded up the stairs into Zera’s arm. Crying into the alien’s shoulder, she couldn’t bear to look back. Zera raised a single hand to wave, a solemn farewell. When Eli and Wendy waved back, she wordlessly pressed the button that raised the steps again.

Inside the cramped ship, with no room to sit down, Mason found his sister and tried to give her what little solace he could muster. “It’ll be alright Mabel. This is their choice. We still have the portal ahead of us.”

She replied between sobs. “Feels like every time we go through that stupid thing I have to leave someone behind.”

“This time is the last time.” Pacifica reached for Mabel’s hand through the crowded ship. “I promise.”

From outside they heard the sound of an explosion. The hangar doors must have finally burst open. The noise of exchanged gunfire was drowned out as the engines hummed to life.

“We good to go now?” Bel yelled from the cockpit.

Mason quickly made sure everyone else was present and as secured as they were going to be. Grenda was at the front with a first aid kit, tending to Candy and Bokamoso’s injuries. Quattro and Andromeda were beside each other, holding hands and bracing for the inevitable. He was glad to see Merrise safely strapped in. Going directly through the portal for the first time was sure to have an effect on someone new to the process.

Finally Jheselbraum, unnervingly staring back at him, knowing he’d be checking everyone was alright. “They will ensure the Eye remains Open. You have my word.”

“Step on it,” Mason said, as sure in the decision as any he’d made in his life. Forced back by the sudden thrust of the engine, he said a quiet goodbye to one of his oldest friends.

This time the ship cleared the hangar, racing off into space towards the planet below. Pacifica didn’t rate this Mabel’s flying as much better than the original’s, but her zig-zaggy motion proved to be a boon. As hundreds of a-mortal ships of all sizes began converging on them, Bel dodged in all directions to weave a path through their ranks.

Soon, all that was ahead of them was the grey planet and the portal. Flying in a straight line, they swept over the enormous outer walls of the triangle and made for the caldera at the heart. The chilling blue swirl of light grew ever more all-encompassing. They were like a fly on a windshield, about to be cast off back into the multiverse with only Candy’s rudimentary calculations guiding them.

When the finally reached the portal’s edge, the twins felt the same attractive sensation as before, pulling them towards the glow. Everyone in the ship lifted into the air, gravity cancelled around them. Pummelled by waves of energy, the ship around them began falling apart, disassembled by the insane forces acting on them all.

Then they were all falling. Falling back down, to Earth.

With the golden ship vanishing from Wendy and Eli’s sight long before it entered the portal, they gave a valiant defence to stretch as much time for the others as possible. Many a-mortals fell before the end, but eventually they were beaten.

Wounded and near to death on the floor of the hangar, Wendy messed with the controls on her suit’s control panel, sending the portal into overdrive. As their enemies advanced for a killing blow, she smiled towards Eli, similarly unable to fight back.

“We did it. We gave them enough time.”

“Yeah. We did.” Wendy shut her eyes, content to rest now the task was done. But Eli spoke one more time. “Wendy. Look. Open your eyes.”

As the station turned in space, Wendy Corduroy saw the planet below in the view outside. The portal’s blue glow shifted in colour, reddening and shaking erratically. Then the vast portal, the planet it was built upon, the fleet of ships, the station, and all the a-mortals’ ships exploded in a single instant, a bright light wiping out a sizable chunk of the surrounding galaxy and punching a hole in the fabric of space so big that it fell back in on itself.

When the cataclysm abated, all that was left in the wreckage, amidst burnt out stars and lifeless planets, right at the centre, was a black hole.

* * *

In the silent cavern rested the frame that had once been the portal, a gateway to infinity. Now it was broken and scattered, a functionless pile of scrap metal and busted components. Yet, above the behemoth’s skeleton, in the place where the aperture had once proudly stood, a new light flared out and bathed the cavern in luminescent red.

The silence was broken as the noise of an entire star system going up in flames poured in from the other side. Then the screams of seven humans, two paper constructs, and three aliens punctured the reality, falling from the height and landing roughly on the ground.

As Pacifica got shakily to her feet, getting used to the sudden return of normal gravity, the pall of silence fell again and the gateway that connected them to Wendy and Eli closed forever.

They were home, at last.

She couldn’t see much in the basement of the Shack, dim as it had always been, but everyone seemed to have made it through the portal relatively intact. Even her stomach, that had so often caused her distress lately because of her unknown child, was still.

Without discussing it, she went to the elevator and rode back to the surface. The Shack above was as dark as the basement. Through the wooden slats, Pacifica could see all the way up to the stars, twinkling above in the inky sky.

The a-mortals had cleared out the Shack. There were no bodies of the Society acolytes or Hombres Caiman. They had some common decency in that regard. The rest was empty, ransacked. Every corner scrutinised by the a-mortals for the slightest clue that could have given them the portal’s secrets.

Wandering aimlessly through the hollow wooden building, she made her way out onto the roof, to better see the stars. Maybe, she wondered, they were somewhere up there. Still fighting the good fight.

It wasn’t long before Mason found her up there and came to join in the stargazing. Later Mabel joined too, and the three of them sat together and contemplated the sky above without a word to each other. So much had happened in the last few days and hours that they needed time to simply exist, without some new mystery to solve or threat to counter.

Eventually, Pacifica finally overcame the silence of their return. In barely a whisper, she spoke to the heavens. “We made it guys. They got us home.”

For the first time she could remember, Pacifica Pines awoke from a perfect night’s sleep. She’d slept peacefully; no dreams to distract and frustrate her, no visions of doom. Just quiet bliss, lying beside a man she loved.

Then she leant over the bed and vomited into a bucket. “Still better than the dreams,” she muttered to herself. Her mood quickly brightened after that. Though the vomiting wasn’t particularly pleasant, it was still a sign of things to come. Of a future she finally had a chance of living out.

Mason was already up. He’d left without disturbing her, his sleeping beauty. He was probably out making sure Merrise was staying out of trouble or checking ambient radiation levels from the portal.

The last few days had been spent recovering from all they’d gone through. It was kind of like the summer, with people crammed into the Shack. This time though there was no goal, nothing to work towards. Just a chance to rest and enjoy each other’s company, free from any trials and tasks.

On their second day back, Mabel had swung by the town to both pick up food and let Soos and Melody know they were back. The Ramirez’s were glad to have their home and place of business back, but Soos was distraught to hear that Wendy had chosen to stay behind. As Mr Mystery, he promised to build her some kind of memorial in the Shack’s museum, similar to one he’d made when Stan had passed. It was the least she deserved. She was an honoured ex-employee after all.

The downtime gave Pacifica and Mason a chance to start acting as Merrise’s parents properly. Neither of them had any experience looking after a kid, but they were going to give Merrise as much attention and care as she needed.

Gravity Falls served as a useful way to acclimatise her to living on Earth. In contrast to how most people reacted to the valley, Merrise was fascinated not by the strange creatures at the periphery, but the denizens of the town and normal life. Slowly she would get used to the culture and life of living on a very different world to the one she’d been born on.

Soon, life returned to something resembling normal for the group who’d travelled so far across the stars. It was time for them to split apart and move on. To go their separate ways.

First to leave was Quattro. He arranged for his circus troupe to swing by, so they could get back on the road and he could start performing again. But he wouldn’t be going alone.

Bokamoso had mostly spent the week unsure of where he’d go next. He gave both Zera and Mabel some further lessons in sorcery, but the rest of his time was spent in thought. There wasn’t much for him back in Johannesburg. Seeing the wonders of the universe and variety of beings in the Falls had showed him a life where he was accepted for who he was.

Quattro gave him his answer. A life where his natural charisma and showmanship could be wedded to his unusual quirk. His third eye wouldn’t make him stand apart in a circus surrounded by fellow ‘freaks’. And the opportunity to use his magic to help lost supernatural creatures as part of Quattro’s underground railroad was the icing on the cake that helped him make his decision.

With their departure, the others began making plans to leave. Soos and Melody would need to fix up the Shack for reopening, and they all had lives to get back too. Tomorrow morning was the departure date for the Pines. Barring Mabel, who had her own plans, the family would be heady back to Trenton, to try and figure out how best to salvage their careers. 

As Pacifica got dressed for the day, she wondered how long they would really settle down for, before some new calling would pull her and her husband back out on another adventure.

“So, I hear you guys are off back to Austria soon?” Down in the gift shop, Mason observed Candy, Grenda, and Andromeda’s travel cases, packed up beside the door.

Candy nodded. “Back to work as the head of Chiu-Tech. The world’s still turning after all.”

“Thanks to us,” he added. “Hope you guys have a smooth flight. Got any new projects in mind after seeing everything we did?”

There was a slight critical edge in his voice, but Candy’s reply implied she hadn’t noticed. “A few things. I’m already planning a paper skin graft to cover the wound on my arm.” She showed off the burn mark, that only those had had returned through the portal would ever recognise as being from an a-mortal’s laser blast. “Maybe I’ll add some cybernetic enhancements while I’m at it. Ha, Fiddleford would have liked that.” When Mason seemed vaguely unsatisfied with that, she rolled her eyes. “And yes, Mason, I know what you’re thinking. No more cloning experiments or anything too closely linked to the portal.”

“Thank you,” he sighed sternly.

“We’re not dumb,” Grenda said, crossing her arms disapprovingly. “We _are_ scientists after all.”

“And unpaid interns!” Andromeda said cheerily.

Mason felt embarrassed that he’d even broached the possibility. Candy smiled at him, but her words were serious. “None of us will forget their sacrifice. That’s a promise.”

“I appreciate that.” Mason was about to drop the subject and wish them well, but a nagging thought crept from his lips. “I wonder though. After all that’s happened, we can’t just hide the portal away. Too many people know about it now. Someday, somehow, the technology will be uncovered.”

“Then perhaps,” Candy said, “our efforts could be put towards refining the concept. The Open Eye may have had the wrong approach, but maybe with time we could find some good comes from all this.”

“To that we can both agree.” Mason opened his arms wide, hugging his three old friends. Even Andromeda seemed to have finally figured out how to mediate her strength, so it wasn’t too painfully tight. “Oh, and one more thing. Just a warning, but there might still be other a-mortals out there. And new ones could pop up. It’s a natural process in a way, some individuals will always find the secret. At least now with the old leadership gone they might avoid such drastic measures.”

“We shall endeavour to root out their influence, if the need arises. Farewell, Dipper Pines.” Candy bowed and went with Grenda to gather up their travel cases.

Mason was about to leave them to it when Andromeda stopped him. “Sure you don’t want to say hi to my parents before you go?”

“Nooooo thank you. It was bad enough when Pacifica called them about the baby. I think I could hear your dad’s blood vessels popping from across the forest. Speaking of Pacifica.” The creak of the stairs signalled his wife’s descent. He rushed to her side to help her down the last few steps. “Careful, take it easy Princess.”

“I’m fine Mace. I’m only like 3 weeks pregnant, you don’t have to coddle me that much yet.” When she reached the ground floor she shook off his hand but pecked him on the cheek. “It’s sweet though. Have you seen Merrise today?”

“Ooh, I saw her!” Andromeda said, grinning. “We were out playing tag earlier, she’s really good at it cause she kept climbing up trees and jumping around.”

When Mason’s face started to go pale, Pacifica kissed him again. “You don’t have to coddle her either. Merrise needs a little exercise, she’s a growing kid.”

He gave a deep breath. “You’re right, she can handle herself.”

“That’s not gonna stop you worrying though, is it?” Pacifica said with a smirk. The fact that her husband cared equally for her as he did their new daughter was reassuring. He was the same old Mason after all they’d been through, only wanting the best for his family.

Pacifica waved to her paper clone and left through the porch door to look for Merrise. She didn’t have to look far, before finding her sitting between Mabel and Zera on a log at the edge of the clearing.

When the young girl saw Pacifica, she rushed over excitedly. Her legs were covered in mud, and she started rattling off what she’d been up to. “You guys are never gonna believe what I saw in the woods earlier! There were these tiny little bearded men, and then they ran off scared cause some horned muscly things stomped through the clearing, and then a furry creature with loads of heads passed by! He spoke to me too. He seemed really nice, said something about trading something called a ‘See-Dee’ with dad!”

“Sounds like a perfectly normal day around here.” Pacifica tickled her belly and picked up the laughing girl. “Alright, little miss troublemaker. Let’s get you inside and cleaned up.” Heading inside, Pacifica waved over her shoulder to the couple on the log, before passing her husband back into the Shack.

Mason headed in the opposite direction, out towards Mabel and Zera. “I wondered where you two have been all morning.”

“Mornin’ Dipper,” Mabel said a tad over-enthusiastically. “Pacifica being all nurturing is so cute. Never expected it from her…”

“But it’s certainly a nice surprise,” he finished. “I think things are gonna be pretty fine when we get back to New Jersey. 2029’s gonna be a much better year for us. And now we need to talk about that properly.”

He crossed his arms, and Zera flashed Mabel a look of concern. “Figured this was coming eventually.”

“Relax,” Mabel said, “I’ve got this.”

“Got what?” Mason raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “What _were_ you two doing up so early exactly?”

“May thought we should go out bright and early, so she could show me this pleasant forest you have.” Zera nodded, failing to reinforce the façade that nothing major had occurred. “All that fresh air, vigorous hiking. You know, just… walking and talking.”

“Is that all?”

Mabel batted his forehead lightly with her hand. “Yes, we’re being serious for once, Dipstick. It’s not like we were having sex in the middle of the woods.” Her brother immediately stared blushing. “We got up and went for a long trek, all over the Falls. I wanted to finally talk about… well, everything. Confront it head on, no holds barred.”

“So, what did you talk about?” Mason’s question wasn’t probing this time, he was gently leading Mabel to say what she was going to anyway.

“After everything that happened with Eli… the fact I never knew what I really wanted… this time I wanted to be sure. I wanted to be upfront, no coyness or beating around the bush.” Zera found Mabel’s hand and squeezed it. “Zera is… wonderful. She’s passionate, and clever, and talented, and so so beautiful. I want her beside me as I chart my way through whatever comes next.”

“Which is why,” Zera said hesitantly, “we’re leaving tomorrow as well.”

“You understand Dipper? Me and Zera are going together…”

Mason lowered his arms and paused for a moment, letting it sink in. He raised a small smile. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t be coming back with us. Fitting three of us into the house is one thing, and with the baby on the way… Imagining you, the famous May Pines, settling down again…”

“I have my own life to get back to,” Mabel said sadly. “We saved the world, yes. But I want to make sure it’s a world that was worth saving.”

“Back to the activism then? All those political protests and campaigns, crisscrossing the world?” He saw Mabel tense up, a ball of stress clenching inside. She was taken aback when he pulled her into a hug. “I’m really gonna miss you.”

“You’re not angry? About stirring up trouble, all that?”

“Of course not. After the last year, I’ve seen why you do what you do. Look at me, I spent 5 years being the most boring man in the world. I’m proud to have a sister like you, who cares so much.”

The twins tightened their embrace. When Mabel broke away she was smiling widely. “This time we gotta stay in touch.”

“Of course.”

“And I’ll visit, anytime get a chance. I’ll need baby updates, and seeing how Merrise grows up, and spending time with my two favourite people in the whole wide world!”

Mason turned to Zera. “What about you? You’ll stay on this planet, with Mabel?”

“I will.” The alien nodded. “I used to be a two-bit conwoman, out to only look after myself. Now I’m one of the people who helped save the universe. Mabel showed me that people can really make a difference. I think I owe it myself to try and do some real good in my life.”

“I called up some contacts I have, back in Seattle.” Mabel said. “Me and Zera are gonna hitch a ride back down south, to California first. Maybe see mom and dad.”

“Just don’t scare them too much with your alien girlfriend,” Mason said with a chuckle.

“I’ll take a video of their reactions for you, bro.” Mabel stuck out her tongue and laughed. Then we’ll see where we end up from there.” She sighed and stared wistfully at the Mystery Shack. “I’m gonna miss this place. The friends we had together, it really was a crazy summer we had.”

“Let’s hope it’s not our last in Gravity Falls,” Mason said, transformed from how he’d been only a short year ago. “We should celebrate. One last night of the Pines family all under one roof.” Holding hands, Mabel and Zera beamed back at him. “Although, that reminds me. I knew I was forgetting somebody.”

* * *

In the shade of the forest, the few rays of sunlight reaching down through the trees shone upon a stone triangle, framed in a small clearing. Anti-Mabel had chosen this spot to make her exit. It was quiet and out of the way from all the busy activity around the Shack.

She looked again at the hopper disc, making sure it was on correctly. She’d nabbed the device from Candy’s travel case, where it had been stowed with the others’. To them, the hoppers were just a useless curiosity now, a simple reminder of their journey. But to Bel it represented freedom. Her one way off this single world.

“Leaving so soon? And without a proper goodbye?” Bel jumped at the voice. From behind a nearby tree, Jheselbraum stepped into the clearing. Towering over both Bel and the nearby statue, the Oracle’s eyes judged her intently.

“Goodbyes aren’t really my thing,” she waved off. “Everyone’s got their happy ending. My duplicate’s even got herself a fish girlfriend, all’s peachy. So I’m skipping out on this dimension. It’s all too nice now the day’s been saved. That shit’s not for me.”

“Off to sow chaos in the multiverse again then?” Jheselbraum walked over the statue of Cipher and leant an arm on the top of his stone hat. “This realm is not a home for me either, Mabel Pines. I have a sacred duty to attend to, and my life cannot fit into the easy patterns of linear events. The burning has been prevented, but there are other tasks I must fulfil. Other patterns.”

“Huh? What are you saying?” Bel raised her palm, about ready to slam down on the hopper and abandon this strange dreamer. Her hand halted the air when Jheselbraum lowered her hood. The red fronds growing out the side of her head drew Bel’s gaze.

“I’m saying,” the oracle said as pulled up the long sleeve of her flowing robes to reveal an identical disc atop her palm, “that I am coming with you.”

“Hey, what’s your game?” Bel stepped back away from the oracle, narrowing her eyes and studying the alien. “You’re just leaving the others behind? I thought you travelled with them, sent them all those dreams. And the way you acted, all floaty and above it all. I thought you were some righteous paragon of good?”

For the first time Bel had ever known, Jheselbraum laughed, a sharp exultation. “_Good_? Whatever made you think I was interested in so small a concept?”

Bel’s mouth dropped open. “Oho, now you’re speaking my language.” Cautiously, she approached Jheselbraum. “So you’re like me? Just slipping away without a word? Not even to Pacifica?”

“I think this way it’ll be more… enigmatic.”

Bel flashed a wicked grin. “I like the way you play, sister.” She placed her hand with the hopper on top of Jheselbraum’s. “We really doing this? You and me?”

“These devices are random. It may take some time for either of us to find what we’re really looking for.”

“Well then. What are we waiting for?”

With that, she slammed down on the hopper. A bright flash swept the two of them far away from Earth in Dimension 46 apostrophe backslash. Off to see what the future would bring.

* * *

_8 years later…_

Pacifica turned over the last page of the book and finished reading the tale to the enraptured child sitting on her lap. With her light brown curly hair she was a mix of both her parents, and she seemed to have enjoyed hearing the story in full at last.

The colourful illustrations in the book were all Pacifica’s doing. She sometimes missed the structure and rigor of being an architect but had to admit this line of work felt more rewarding. To spread the stories, so they would always be remembered. Of course, she couldn’t really take credit for the text.

“So, what did you think?” she asked her daughter. Having someone in the target age range to get an honest reaction was something she was finding most helpful.

The girl thought for a moment, before launching into a breathless recap of all the best parts. Pacifica felt her bouncing on her knee and smiled inwardly to see her so enthused. “Did you and dad really do all that cool stuff?”

“Of course we did, with your aunt Mabel too.” She flipped back through the pages, feeling a small knot of doubt that the book would do well. But at least it had made one little girl happy. “If it wasn’t for those adventures, you wouldn’t be here.”

She booped her daughter’s nose, setting off a string of high-pitched giggles. Pacifica didn’t think she’d ever giggled once in the first 13 years of her life, so anytime her child laughed she had an undeniable warm feeling in her chest.

“It musta been sad, losing your friends though.”

Pacifica hugged her tighter. “It was. That’s why we remember them. Not just in the stories, but with you, Wendy.” The girl smiled, honoured to have such a noble namesake, while Pacifica fiddled idly with the silver pendant that now hung around her daughter’s neck.

The front door opened, and Mason and Merrise strolled in. Mason kissed Pacifica on the cheek and ruffled his daughter’s hair. “You two have fun reading together?”

“Yes we did daddy! You’ve gotta let me read your journal sometimes, please please please!”

“That’s my little Pine Tree,” he said. “Your great-great uncles would be proud.”

“How’d was your outing?” Pacifica asked, taking note of her husband’s dishevelled clothes.

“Ah, Jersey Devil got away from us again, but I’m sure we’ll nab him next time.”

Wendy ran up to her sister and started hopping on the spot. “Can I come on your adventure next time Merrise?”

“I dunno sis, maybe after your next birthday,” she said with a sly grin. “Hi mom.”

The pink alien waved to her mother. Merrise’s hands were in the pockets of a black leather jacket. “I see you’ve been taking fashion tips from Mabel again,” Pacifica said with a critical tone.

“Hey, I make this look good. You’re the one who always told me to own it.”

“Yes I did,” she nodded, proud of her daughter choosing to go her own way.

Mason clapped his hands together and faced his two girls. “How about you two go get strapped in the car. Mabel and Zera will be back from their relief trip to Peru soon, we don’t want to leave them waiting at the airport.”

Merrise lifted her sister into a piggyback ride and headed out, leaving the parents together. Pacifica’s eyes followed her children out, then momentarily glanced down to the copy of her book sitting on the table.

“I’m sure the publishers are gonna love it, Paz. You captured the scenes beautifully in your sketches.”

“I know.” Her reply was neutral, as if she were taking time to process something. “I’m thinking about all that led up to this. From you finding that journal, all those years ago, to Weirdmageddon, the Alignment, everything that happened because of my dreams.”

“It was a long road to get here.”

Pacifica smiled. “Now we get to be the new authors, to tell our story. Imagine who’ll unearth it someday and start something just as wonderful.”

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here we are, at the very end at last. It's been a long time coming, since early planning began all the way back in August of last year. Never expected the work to grow so large or for it to encompass so much of my free time. Feedback kinda dropped off compared to my other fics, so if you've made it this far I'd love to hear your thoughts on the finished behemoth, on the ending, on the characters, which parts you liked, which parts you didn't. 
> 
> Also, I'm reminding myself never to write something quite this long ever again ;)
> 
> As for any future plans, I have nothing immediate, for Gravity Falls or anything else anytime soon. Need some time to rest after the long work that went into Forever Falling. My next fic will almost certainly be a short one-shot, whenever I finally come up with a decent hook for a story. Until then, thanks to all who've read this story and I hope it's been a fun read.
> 
> Update 09/2020: For followups set in the same continuity as Forever Falling, check out my series Falls Tales, shorter fics that continue the story of the characters: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914031


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